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The  Red  Labor 
International 


Published  by 

THE  VOICE  of  LABOR 

November,  1921 


TTuko-w^: 


Workers  of  the  World  Unite  ! 


Resolutions  and 
Decisions 


OF  THE 


First  International  Congress  of  Revolu- 
tionary Trade  and  Industrial  Unions 


The  American  Labor  Union  Educational  Society. 


483 


im 


•+(■■1)    (o' 


CONTENTS 

Introduction  by  International  Secretary 3 

1.  Manifesto  issued  to  Workers  of  the  World 11 

2.  Resolution  on  the  report  of  the  Provisional 

Council  of  the  R.  L.  U.  1 16 

3.  Resolution  on  the  Relationship  between  the  R. 

L.  U.  I.  and  the  C.  1 17 

4.  Resolution  on  Italian  question 19 

5.  Resolution  on  Tactics 21  ^ 

6.  Resolution  on  Workers'  Control 44 

7.  Resolution  on  Shop  Committees 52 

6.  Resolution  on  Organization ...  55  v' 

9.  Constitution  of  R.  L.  U.  I 72 

10.  Resolution  on  Women's  Question 80 

11.  Resolution  on  Unemployment .  81 

12.  Resolution  on  Victims  of  the  War 85 

13.  Resolution  on  the  Labor  Movement  in  the  Near 

and  Far  Eastern  Countries  and  the  Colonies..  86 

14.  Appeal  against  White  Terror 87 

15.  Manifesto  to  the  Workers  of  the  United  King- 

dom  92   / 

16.  Appeal  to  Spanish  Proletariat 94 

17.  Greetings  to  Russian  people 96 


Introduction. 

The  resolutions  we  now  submit  to  the  attention  of  the 
reader  are  the  results  of  the  fortnight's  labors  of  the 
first  International  Congress  of  Revolutionary  Labor 
Unions.  Only  eleven  months  ago  the  Provisional  Coun- 
cil of  Labor  Unions  was  estab.ished  which  aimed  to 
oppose  the  ideas  of  a  revolutionary  dass  struggle  and 
social  revolution  to  the  conception  of  the  class  collabora- 
tion. These  eleven  months  were  a  period  of  a  gathering 
of  forces  and  decentralized  agitation.  During  that  period 
considerable  minorities  were  forming  and  shaping 
themselves  in  all  countries  which  declared  themselves 
resolutely  and  sharply  against  the  policy  of  the  old  trade 
unions.  The  revolutionary  labor  union  movement  was 
a  very  variegated  one ;  there  was  no  unity  of  program ; 
no  unity  of  tactics.  There  was  a  great  variety  of  ten- 
dencies, ideas,  disunited  in  their  understanding  of  the 
paths  leading  to  social  revolution  and  of  the  problems 
before  the  working  class  of  the  present  epoch,  the  only 
connecting  link  between  them  being  the  common  hatred 
for  the  exploiters.  This  natural  variety  of  forms 
created  by  the  pecularities  of  the  labor  movement  in 
each  country  at  a  period  when  the  movement  begins  to 
define  and  oppose  itself  to  the  old  trade  union  move- 
ment, was  of  course  unavoidable.  But  this  variety  which 
is  undoubtedly  preventing  unity  of  action  had  to  be  out- 
lived. One  general  and  obligatory  line  of  action  had 
therefore  to  be  defined  and  worked  out.  The  first  Inter- 
national Congress  of  the  Revolutionary  Labor  Unions 
has  fully  acquitted  itself  of  the  task  of  gathering  the 
revolutionary  disintegrated  forces,  of  adopting  one  com- 
mon line  of  action  and  of  creating  a  solid  foundation  for 
a  rapid  organization  of  the  revolutionary  classes. 
Perusing  attentively  the  minutes  and  resolutions  of  the 
first  congress,  we  see  how  the  col]ective  thought  of  the 
revolutionary  unions*  has  molded  itse^  after  long  and 
heated  debates,  after  struggle  and  mutual  concessions. 
The  resolutions  found  below  are  the  crystalized  expe- 
rience of  the  labor  movement  of  all  countries.  The  bal- 
ance sheet  of  a  whole  epoch  in  the  trade  union  move- 


m£5J^01 


ment  had  been  summed  up  at  the  congress,  the  pre-war 
and  post-war  pages  of  history  turned  over  and  concrete 
revolutionary  inferences  from  the  positive  and  negative 
experience  of  the  working  class  were  drawn  by  the 
congress. 

We  regard  the  resolutions  on  the  relations  between 
the  Communist  International  and  the  Red  International 
of  Labor  Unions  as  indicating,  undoubtedly,  the  entire 
direction  of  the  International  Labor  Union  movement. 
The  congress  could  not  and  did  not  silently  pass 
this  question.  Before  the  first  congress  of  the 
Revolutionary  Labor  Unions  the  Communist  movement 
and  the  Communist  International  were  a  revolu 
tionary  fact.  Despite  the  "independent"  frame  of 
mind  of  many  of  the  delegates,  whatever  their 
prejudices  against  politics,  political  parties,  facts 
are  stubborn  things  and  the  congress  had  to  say:  "Will 
the  revolutionary  unions  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  Com- 
munist International  or  with  some  other  force  in  their 
struggle  against  capitalism  ?"  The  congress  had  to 
decide  as  to  whether  there  existed  some  other 
revolutionary  class  force  which  is  following  the  same 
path  as  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions?  And 
here  the  resolution  adopted  while  declaring  for  the  inde- 
pendent organization  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor 
^Unions,  emphasizes  the  absolute  necessity  for  unity  of 
action  and  close  co-operation  for  the  struggle.  The 
congress  logically  bases  this  view  on  the  concentration 
of  the  forces  of  the  bourgeoisie,  pointing  to  the  fact  that 
the  bourgeoisie  had  long  since  succeeded  in  unifying  and 
rallying  its  political  and  economic  organizations  for 
joint  struggle.  The  demands  of  the  struggle,  the  crea- 
tion of  a  united  front  for  the  revolutionary  onslaught 
compels  not  only  the  majority  of  the  congress,  but  the 
revolutionary  syndicalist  minority,  which  defends 
feverishly  the  independence  of  the  trade  union  move- 
ment, to  recognize  the  absolute  necessity  for  establish- 
ing closest  possible  connections  with  the  III  Communist 
International  as  the  vanguard  of  the  world  labor  move- 
ment on  the  basis  of  mutual  representation  on  both 
executive  organs  of  joint  sessions,  etc.;  to  recognize 
that  the  connections  must  bear  an  organized  and  busi- 
ness character  and  find  expression  in  joint  preparatory 
work  for  and  in  most  complete  co-operation  in  revolu- 
tionary activities  on  a  national  and  international  scale ; 


to  recognize  the  extreme  desirability  for  each  country 
to  establish  practical  connections  between  the  Red 
labor  unions  and  the  Communist  party  so  as  to  carry 
out  the  instructions  of  both  Internationals. 

The  decision  on  the  relations  with  the  III  Com- 
munist International  predetermined  all  further  de- 
cisions of  the  congress  and  the  discussions  which  sprang 
later  only  completed  the  already  developed  and  ex- 
pressed views  of  the  basic  questions. 

The  question  of  relations  between  the  Communist 
International  and  the  International  of  Labor  Unions 
solves  only  one  part  of  the  problem  of  co-ordination  of 
action;  of  close  co-operation,  etc.;  there  is  still  to  be 
decided  and  defined  precisely  the  special  tasks  before 
the  revolutionary  labor  movement  of  the  world.  The 
aim  is  to  overthrow  capitalism  and  to  establish  the  dic- 
tatorship of  the  pro^tariat.  The  majority  agreed  on 
this  point;  nine-tenths  of  the  syndicalists,  taught  by 
the  experience  of  war  and  revolution,  declared  them- 
selves for  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat,  under- 
standing it,  true  enough,  in  their  own  syndicalist  way. 
Great  differences  arose  when  the  congress  had  to  define 
the  concrete  problems  of  the  struggle  in  each  individual 
country  and  the  slogans  upon  which  the  attention  of 
the  working  masses  had  to  be  concentrated.  Here  first 
of  all  we  had  to  determine  the  very  methods  of  struggle. 
The  debates  became  quite  heated  on  the  question 
whether  we  must  strive  to  destroy  the  old  unions  or  to 
conquer  them.  Those  who  stood  for  the  principle  of 
splitting  them  were  a  mere  handful  at  the 
congress.  For  them  the  old  reformist  unions  were  the 
center  of  vices,  where  the  revolutionary  saints  have 
no  place,  and  therefore  they  thought  it  necessary  to  put 
the  smashi?ig  of  such  unions  as  the  basis  of  revolution- 
ary tactics.  On  this  question  the  congress  took  a  definite 
stand  both  in  the  resolution  on  tactics  and  in  the  reso- 
lution on  tho  question  of  organization.  "Not  smashing, 
but  conqueiing  the  unions,"  this  is  what  the  first  con- 
gress said,  and  this  was  said  almost  unanimously  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  confusionists  who  try  to  clothe 
their  pessimism  and  lack  of  force  in  theoretical  garb. 

In  a  special  paragraph  called  "the  methods  of 
struggle,"  the  congress  draws  the  attention  to  the  ne- 


}/ 


cessity  for  elastic  tactics  in  the  struggle,  both  defensive 
and  offensive. 

"There  are  no  absolutely  infallible  methods  of 
struggle,"  says  the  congress,  "everything  changes  in 
accordance  with  time,  place  and  circumstances.  The 
partisans  of  the  Red  Labor  Union  International  must 
be  not  only  model  revolutionists,  but  also  models  of  sus- 
tained power  and  attitude  as  well  as  of  levelheaded- 
ness. The  whole  secret  of  success  lies  in  the  systematic, 
well-planned  and  energetic  preparation  of  every  action, 
of  every  movement  of  masses.  Rapidity  and  implaca- 
bility of  action  should  combine  with  a  thoughtful  and 
detailed  study  of  conditions,  as  well  as  of  the  extent 
of  organization  of  the  hostile  forces.  In  the  class 
struggle,  as  well  as  at  the  battle  front,  it  is  necessary 
to  be  able  not  only  to  attack,  but  also  to  retreat  in  or- 
derly and  compact  formation.  Both  in  defensive  and 
offensive  action  we  should  always  keep  in  view  one 
thing:  to  have  with  us  the  sympathy  of  the  large  pro- 
letarian masses  and  to  carefully  consider  the  entire 
social-political  situation  in  which  the  struggle  is  going 
on."  This  relativity  of  methods  and  means  of  struggle 
is  emphasized  in  another  part  of  the  theses  on  tactics, 
where  it  is  said  that  we  should  not  think  that  offensive 
action  is  the  best  means  of  battle  under  all  circum- 
stances and  conditions.  Our  tactics  should  be  flexible 
and  should  take  into  account  all  the  difficulties. 

Special  attention  was  given  at  the  congress  to  the 
question  about  the  Italian  Confederation  of  Labor.  The 
resolution  adopted  after  a  thorough  discussion  of  this 
question,  clearly  and  strongly  worded,  declares  against 
the  double-fronted  position  occupied  by  the  Italian  Con- 
federation. There  are  unions  and  whole  national  trade 
union  federations  which  cannot  at  all  understand  that 
the  Amsterdam  International  and  the  Red  Interna- 
tional do  not  represent  and  express  the  aspirations  of 
the  same  identical  class,  that  the  Amsterdam  Interna- 
tional, in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is  headed  by  working 
men,  is  essentially  an  anti-labor  and  anti-proletarian  or- 
ganization, and  that  our  problem  under  these  condi- 
tions is  not  to  reconcile  what  is  irreconcilable  and  wor- 
ship both  God  and  the  devil,  but  to  take  a  definite  stand 
and  say  with  whom  the  given  trade  union  center  is 
marching,  with  the  Red  International  or  with  the  Yel- 
low one.    It  is  just  this  failure  to  understand  the  differ- 


ence  between  the  two  internationals,  the  great  gulf  sep- 
arating them,  which  is  peculiar  to  the  leaders  of  the 
Italian  Confederation  of  Labor.  The  congress,  there- 
fore, having  discussed  in  detail  the  statement  made  by 
the  official  representatives  of  the  confederation,  adopted 
a  special  resolution  in  which  the  congress  laid  particular 
stress  on  its  own  basic  stand  and  the  way  it  under- 
stands the  problems  of  the  revolutionary  movement. 
This  resolution  is  not  aimed  against  the  Italian  unions, 
the  congress  perfectly  understood  that  the  Italian  pro- 
letariat and  its  unions,  though  technically  not  with  us, 
are  essentially  with  the  Red  Labor  Union  International. 
This  fact  was  emphasized  in  the  resolution,  by  means  of 
which  the  congress  expressed  its  confidence  that  the 
Italian  proletariat  will  very  soon  take  its  place  of  honor 
among  the  revolutionary  unions  of  all  countries. 

The  congress  paid  special  attention  to  the  working 
out  of  a  program  of  action  which  fully  coincides  with 
the  one  adopted  by  the  Third  Congress  of  the  Commun- 
ist International.  This  practical  platform  should  be- 
come the  guide  for  militant  action  of  each  union.  This 
program  of  action  embodies  the  cumulative  experience 
of  the  labor  movement  for  the  last  few  decades,  in 
which  account  is  taken  of  all  that  the  war  and  the  revo- 
lution have  brought  us.  Only  that  union  will  be  a  real 
organic  part  of  the  Red  Labor  Union  International 
which  will  carry  out  this  program  of  action,  not  in 
words  but  in  deeds.  This  program  starts  from  the  fun- 
damental premise  that  it  is  necessary  to  carry  on  a 
direct,  straight  revolutionary  mass  war  against  capital- 
ism, and  the  entire  program  is  built  upon  this  basis.  All 
questions  touched  upon  in  this  program,  all  slogans 
formulated  by  it,  all  this  can  be  carried  out  or  realized 
only  when  we  have  mass  revolutionary  action  and  a 
direct  onslaught  against  the  bourgeoisie. 

The  basic  idea  permeating  the  entire  program  is  just 
this  direct  revolutionary  action  of  the  masses.  This 
program  should  not  only  be  read  but  studied  and  carried 
out ;  it  should  serve  as  a  means  for  militant  training  and 
organization  of  the  masses. 

The  logical  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  the  resolution 
on  tactics  is  embodied  in  the  resolutions  and  theses  on 
the  question  of  organization,  together  with  the  consti- 
tution, which,  in  its  organization  formulas,  embodies 
the  basic  line  traced  by  the  congress.    The  question  of 


organization,  especially  at  the  Constituent  Congress,  is 
utterly  complex,  as  we  are  confronted  with  a  tremend- 
ous variety  of  labor  movements;  moreover,  not  only 
whole  organizations,  but  even  parts  of  organizations 
were  represented  at  this  congress.  This  circumstance 
made  it  difficult  to  solve  the  question  of  organization 
and  to  work  out  a  uniform  plan.  Nevertheless  the  con- 
gress traced  a  clear  line  of  organization ;  made  sugges- 
tions on  the  basic  questions  of  constructive  organiza- 
tion work;  brought  to  the  foreground  the  slogan  of 
organizing  unions  by  industries  and  creating  shop  com- 
mittees as  a  basis  for  industrial  unions ;  put  the  ques- 
tion of  conquering  the  old  unions  on  a  practical  basis ; 
gave  a  number  of  concrete  directions  for  each  country 
in  the  field  of  organization  work ;  declared  itself  against 
organizing  nationalist  unions ;  gave  the  slogan  for  con- 
solidating expelled  unions;  defined  its  stand  on  the 
question  of  female  labor  and  the  work  among  the 
youth;  worked  out  the  conditions  of  admission  to  the 
Red  International,  and  finally  worked  out  a  detailed  con- 
stitution, on  the  basis  of  which  the  present  Red  Union 
International  is  built. 

Besides  these  fundamental  questions  the  congress 
paid  great  attention  to  te^  problem  of  workers* 
control.  Workers^control,  at  a  given  stage  of  develop- 
ment of  the  social  struggle,  is  a  thoroughly  practical 
slogan  for  workers  of  all  countries.  In  this  respect  a 
great  deal  of  experience  has  been  accumulated  of  late. 
It  is  of  course  very  evident,  that  Russia  in  this  respect 
has  the  greatest  experience  and  it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  Russian  experience,  practically  tried  in  some  coun- 
tries, was  made  the  basis  of  the  resolution  on  the  ques- 
tion. The  congress  did  not  satisfy  itself  with  merely 
putting  the  question  to  the  front,  but  gave  a  concrete 
form  to  it,  drew  the  workers'  attention  as  to  how  work- 
ers' control  has  to  be  shaped,  the  methods  of  approach- 
ing it,  and  gave  a  practical  program  of  action  in  this 
matter.  We  can  consider  the  resolution  on  this  subject 
exhaustive.  All  the  other  resolutions,  accepted  by  the 
congress,  for  instance,  of  victims  of  the  war,  unemploy- 
ment, woman  in  industry  and  labor  unions,  etc. — 
all  express  the  same  thought;  the  task  of  revo- 
lutionary trade  unions  is  to  organize  the  masses  politi- 
cally and  upon  the  ground  of  daily  struggle  for  an  offen- 
sive against  capitalism.    This  aim  was  in  the  minds  of 

8 


the  congress  all  through  its  labors.  The  congress  has 
discussed  it  from  all  sides,  beginning  with  the  reso- 
lution on  the  report  of  the  International  Council  of 
Labor  Unions  and  ending  with  the  appeals,  issued  by 
the  congress  to  the  International  proletariat  in  general 
and  to  that  of  a  number  of  countries  in  particular. 

The  resolution  referring  to  the  labor  movement  in  the 
far  and  near  eastern  countries  and  the  colonies  is  worth 
mentioning.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  within  recent 
years  the  labor  movement  in  these  countries  has  made 
great  progress  and  that  simultaneously  a  general  deep 
fermentation  is  going  on  in  colonies  exploited  by  Euro- 
pean capitalism.  The  movement  there  has  a  double 
character ;  a  national  revolutionary  one,  quite  often  act- 
ing under  the  slogan  of  race  hatred,  and  a  proletarian 
one,  against  foreign  and  domestic  exploiters.  The  con- 
gress pointed  out,  as  it  was  correctly  stated  by  the  rep- 
resentative from  Java,  the  necessity  of  transforming 
race  hatred  and  of  raising  the  consciousness  of  the  ex- 
ploited masses  to  the  level  of  revolutionary  class 
struggle  and  of  the  social  revolution. 

By  carefully  reading  all  resolutions  and  studying 
them  the  rank  and  file  member  of  a  labor  union  as  well 
as  the  leader  of  labor  organizations  will  find  an  answer 
to  all  questions  that  agitate  him  at  the  present  time. 
The  congress  has  fixed  its  line  of  action.  It  brought  out 
the  concrete  watchwords,  forms  of  organization,  has 
united  all  the  varieties  of  the  revolutionary  wing  of  the 
labor  movement,  including  those  who  have  always  been 
a  stumbling  block  in  the  process  of  organization.  The 
fact  that  after  the  disintegration  of  international  or- 
ganizations, after  the  greatest  collapse  in  history  of  the 
old  labor  unions,  after  all  the  demoralization  caused  in 
the  ranks  of  the  workers  by  the  policy  of  co-operation 
of  classes,  that  after  all  this  it  was  possible  to  gather 
the  representatives  of  17,000,000  of  workers,  to  unite 
them  in  common  understanding  of  the  problems,  to 
form  them  into  militant  columns  for  war  against  capi- 
talism— this  fact  has  greatest  significance.  The  con- 
gress has  built  a  solid,  unshakeable  foundation  of  real 
international  labor  union  organization.  Against  the 
international  of  conciliation  is  put  up  the  international 
of  struggle,  against  the  international  of  inaction — the 

9 


international  of  revolutionary  attack,  against  the  yellow 
Amsterdam  International — the  Red  International. 

The  Red  International  is  finally  organized  and  now 
the  questions  raised  by  the  constituent  congress  of 
revolutionary  labor  unions  will  be  discussed  in  all  coun- 
tries. The  congress  did  not  hide  anything.  It  did  not 
follow  the  example  of  the  Amsterdam  International  and 
did  not  attempt  to  cover  up  any  disagreements.  It  held 
that  for  the  struggle  it  is  necessary  first  of  all  to  have 
clearness  and  then  unity  and  thorough  organization. 

The  participants  in  the  congress  have  made  mutually 
all  possible  concessions.  But  these  concessions  were 
made  after  long  and  passionate  discussions  and  explana- 
tion by  each,  of  his  particular  viewpoint,  and  finally  all 
came  together  upon  the  common  platform ;  social  revo- 
lution, dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  and  the  closest 
organic  co-operation  with  the  Communist  International. 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  at  present  the  full  signi- 
ficance of  this  first  congress.  The  fruits  of  its  labor  and 
the  effect  of  the  adopted  resolutions  will  begin  to  mani- 
fest themselves  in  a  few  months.  But  even  now  one  can 
say  that  great  historical  work  was  accomplished  in  Mos- 
cow. The  scattered  revolutionary  labor  unions  have 
come  together.  They  have  definitely  established  their 
world  center,  have  worked  out  methods  and  means  of, 
struggle  and  now,  with  tenfold  increased  energy,  will 
get  down  to  work.  This  is  the  great  universal  his- 
torical significance  of  the  First  International  Congress 
of  Revolutionary  Labor  Unions  and  of  the  decisions 
adopted  by  it. 

A.  Losovsky. 

Moscow,  July  20,  1921. 


16 


I. 

Manifesto  of  the  Congress  to  the  Workers  of  the  World 

The  criminal  war  started  by  the  capitalist  government 
of  Europe  and  America  which  had  shaken  the  founda- 
tions of  the  old  world  has  come  to  an  end.  The  mons- 
trous aftermath  of  the  horrible  crime  committed 
against  humanity  is  revealed  in  a.l  its  amplitude.  True, 
ten  millions  murdered  are  buried ;  their  corpses  do  not 
disturb  the  peace  of  those  who  condemned  them  to 
death.  But  there  are  yet  eleven  millions  of  wounded  and 
crippled,  on  the  bodies  of  which  the  capitalists  have 
acknowledged,  by  the  machine  guns,  bayonets  and  bul- 
lets, their  unprecedented  crime. 

The  blockade  is  over.  With  the  signing  of  the  so- 
called  "Peace  of  Versailles,"  the  dissipation,  on  the 
battlefields,  of  the  people's  wealth  created  with  the 
sweat  and  blood  of  the  proletariat,  appears  to  have  also 
ended.  But  who  can  count  how  many  more  years  of 
suffering,  degradation,  starvation  and  destitution  will 
be  the  price  the  toiling  masses  of  all  countries  will  have 
to  pay  for  the  destroyed  wealth,  estimated  at  many  bil- 
lions. 

The  war  is  over,  but  in  all  countries  there  is  still  a 
greater  number  of  soldiers  under  arms  than  before  the 
war,  the  expenses  on  armaments  in  all  the  impoverished 
countries  are  also  greater  than  before  the  war.    Human- 
ity came  out  of  the  war  not  only  diminished  by  ten 
millions  of  people,  but  also  greatly  impoverished  and 
ruined.    And  in  addition  to  this,  after  a  short  and  specu- 
lative  revival   of  trade   and   industry,   the   world   is 
passing    through    a   most    terrible,    and    unheard    of 
industrial  crisis ;  the  price  of  the  imperialist  war.    Not 
only  did  the  war  break  down  the  productive  forces  of 
world  capitalism  but  tore  to  pieces  the  economic  ties 
thanks  to  which  the  equilibrium  between  the  capitalist 
sections  of  national  economy  existed  before  the  war. 
The    capitalists    of    industrial    countries    headed    by 
America  are  unable  to  sell  their  products  owing  to  the 
absence  of  markets.     Impoverished  countries  cannot 
buy  them,  the  workers  have  not  the  means  to  buy  the 
necessary  products. 

11 


The  result  is  'the  extraordinary  wave  of  unem- 
ployment in  every  country  and  a  horrible  waste  of  pro- 
ductive forces.  Ten  millions  of  able  bodied  workingmen 
are  thrown  out  on  the  streets  in  all  countries  of  the 
world;  the  machines  are  at  a  standstill  and  deterior- 
ating, billions  worth  of  goods  rot  in  the  storehouses 
or  are  deliberately  destroyed  by  the  capitalists,  in  order 
not  to  sell  them  cheaper  to  the  consumers ;  millions  of 
men  and  women  are  thrown  into  the  clutches  of  hunger 
and  suffering.  And  at  the  same  time  capital  is  making 
a  ferocious  attack  against  those  of  the  workers  whom  it 
graciously  permits  to  stay  in  its  factories.  In  all  coun- 
tries wages  are  cut  down,  conditions  of  labor  are  ren- 
dered worse  and  the  squeezing  of  sweat  and  blood  out 
of  the  workers  has  reached  a  climax.  Sustained  by  the 
power  of  the  capitalist  government,  army,  police,  hired 
press,  courts,  religious  hirelings  and  its  lackeys  of  the 
yellow  Amsterdam  International,  the  capitalists  feel 
sure  of  their  domination. 

What  is  to  be  done  ? 

Brothers  and  comrades  of  the  workingclass,  you  who 
follow  the  Amsterdam  Federation  of  Unions,  and  the 
old  union .  leaders !  The  constituent  congress  of  Red 
Labor  Unions  appeals  to  you,  in  the  name  of  many  mil- 
lions of  organized  revolutionary  workers  of  all  coun- 
tries, with  whom  are  working  in  the  same  shops,  and 
with  whom  you  will  be  together — we  are  quite  sure — 
in  the  final  struggle;  the  Congress  appeals  to  you  to 
ask  yourselves  this  questions.  To  answer  it  look  around, 
without  trusting  to  words  but  only  to  deeds  and  facts, 
and  see  what  your  leaders  of  the  Amsterdam  Inter- 
national have  done  and  what  they  are  still  doing. 
When  the  world  war  started  they,  together  with  the 
leaders  of  the  Second  International,  called  upon  you  to 
go  obediently  into  the  barracks  and  on  the  battlefields. 
During  the  war  they  appealed  to  you  for  civil  peace,  to 
refrain  from  strikes,  to  supernatural  sacrifices  in  the 
name  of  the  war.  Louder  even  than  the  capitalists 
themselves  and  the  corrupted  press,  did  they  yell  about 
the  recompense  that  is  awaiting  you  after  the  war.  Is 
this  your  recompense,  when  the  capitalists  pay  all 
their  pledges  by  cutting  prices,  terrible  lockouts,  by 
closing  up  factories,  unemployment,  violence  of  police, 
and  organization  of  bands  of  sluggers  and  scabs  ?  Only 
the  vanquished  have  to  pay.     And  who  then  is  van- 

12 


vuished,  defeated,  fooled,  subdued — if  not  the  working 
class  ? 

What  are  the  Amsterdam  leaders  doing?  These 
alleged  defenders  of  the  working  class?  Do  they  de- 
mand, together  with  the  working  class,  that  the  cap- 
italists shall  pay  up?  No.  These  people  don't 
intend  to  speak  on  this  question;  by  instructions 
from  capital  they  repeat  to  the  workers  one  and  the 
same  thing;  work  with  all  your  might  to  rebuild  the 
ruins  of  the  war.  But  if  the  fakers  keep  quiet,  it  means 
the  fooled  must  speak.  Let  them  express  their  will, 
let  the  indignant  cry  of  the  proletariat  call  out  one 
single  watchword,  down  with  the  yellow  Amsterdam  In- 
ternational! Down  with  the  domination  of  the  bour- 
geoisie ! 

Capital  is  attacking,  keeping  in  reserve  a  huge  army 
of  unemployed.  Step  by  step  it  takes  away  all  the 
conquests  of  the  past  period.  By  a  stubborn  struggle 
must  the  proletariat  resist  every  inch  of  its  position. 
What  are  the  merits  of  the  Amsterdam  International 
in  this  economic  struggle  of  the  working  class  ?  Did  it 
successfully  lead  you  in  your  struggle?  That  is  the 
question  to  which  every  organized  worker,  even  if  he 
is  educated  to  an  understanding  of  the  cause  of  social- 
ism and  the  revolution,  must  receive  a  clear  and  con- 
cise reply  in  the  name  of  his  immediate  needs. 

Up  to  now  the  Amsterdam  International  either 
surrendered  the  working  class  to  capital  without 
fighting  or  by  its  cowardly  tactics  assured  one  defeat 
after  another.  The  history  of  the  last  heroic  strike  of 
the  English  miners  clearly  illustrates  how  the  trade 
union  leaders  betrayed  the  working  masses  when  repell- 
ing the  attacks  of  capitalism.  Instead  of  moving  to  the 
support  of  the  attacked  miners  new  forces  of  the  or- 
ganized proletariat  and  by  a  solid  united  front  crush 
the  enemy,  these  leaders  refrained  from  the  struggle 
and  at  the  decisive  moment  kept  back  the  proletarian 
reserves,  thus  giving  the  capitalists  a  chance  to  destroy 
the  working  class  bit  by  bit. 

Up  till  now,  as  long  as  the  majority  of  the  organized 
workers  in  the  trade  unions  were  led  by  Gompers,  Jou- 
haux  and  Henderson,  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  We  are 
engaged  in  an  epoch  of  merciless  and  terrible  class 
struggle.  And  those  of  the  leaders,  who  are  afraid  of 
strikes,  who  are  scared  of  their  developments,  who  want 

13 


to  spare  capital,  who  are  afraid  for  the  fate  of  capitalist 
industry  more  than  the  capitalists  themselves — these 
leaders  who  dare  not  and  don't  want  to  lead  the  working 
class  to  victory,  will  inevitably  betray  the  working  class. 
All  your  savings  gathered  by  long  years  of  privation 
will  be  wasted  in  unsucessful  strikes,  because  of  the 
treacherous  tactics  of  the  yellow  leaders.  These  leaders 
are  only  able  to  do  the  things  they  did  during 
the  period  of  peaceful  development  of  capitalism,  i.  e., 
to  sell  the  labor  power  on  behalf  of  their  unions.  At  a 
period  when  the  working  class  was  in  need  of  fighting 
leaders  these  labor  traders  have  always  sold  the  work- 
ers for  the  price  offered  by  the  Morgans,  Stinnes  and 
Ureusot.  All  the  leaders  of  the  Amsterdam  Interna- 
tional who  are  putting  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  pro- 
letariat striving  by  a  united  front  to  defend  its  right 
against  the  attempt  of  the  exploiters,  are  nothing  else 
but  an  international  organization  of  scabs. 

Every  day  the  number  of  cases  increase  when  isolated 
groups  of  workers,  unwilling  to  wait  until  they  will  be 
betrayed,  chaotically  go  in  for  strikes  and  revolutionary 
struggle.  Subject  to  their  faithful  class  instincts  they 
break  the  discipline  imposed  upon  them  by  the  traitors, 
break  the  discipline  of  capital  and  keep  up  the  sacred 
right  of  every  proletarian  unwilling  to  surrender  to  the 
enemy  without  struggle.  But  to  get  rid  of  the  yellow 
treacherous  leaders  who  seh  the  cause  of  the  working 
class,  the  International  Congress  of  Red  Trade  Unions 
cails  upon  all  the  workers  still  attached  to  Amsterdam 
to  drive  away  whenever  and  wherever  they  can  the 
bureaucrats  and  traitors  standing  at  the  head  of  the 
f yellow  unions  and  join  in  an  organized  manner  the  In- 
ternational of  the  revolutionary  unions.  Two-fifths  of 
the  organized  workers  of  the  world  have  already  joined 
the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions.  The  time  has 
come  when  the  international  army  of  labor  must  unite 
under  the  red  banner  of  the  proletarian  revolution. 

In  the  ferocious  struggle  between  labor  and  capital 
raging  all  over  the  world,  the  bourgeoise  is  acting  in  a 
more  organized,  more  conscious,  and  more  decisive  man- 
ner than  the  proletariat.  And  nowhere  did  the  skill 
and  superiority  of  the  bourgeoisie  reveal  itself  so  ob- 
viously than  in  the  possibility  of  keeping  in  bond  and 
subjection  the  many  millions  of  workers  with  the  hands 
of  the  working  class  itself,  by  the  help  of  those  of  its 

14 


readers  who  like  knaves  stab  the  proletariat  in  the  back 
and  don't  let  them  throw  off  their  shoulders  the  capital- 
ist superstructure. 

If  the  capitalist  order  still  exists,  if  the  capitalist 
class  is  still  able,  at  the  most  critical  moment,  when  the 
war  ended  and  demobilization  began,  to  keep  in  power 
and  still  defeat  the  working  class  in  skirmish  fighting, 
this  is  due  to  the  heroes  of  Amsterdam  and  the  second 
international.  But  everything  has  an  end.  The 
workers  throughout  the  world  are  becoming  more  con- 
vinced that  capitalism  is  not  all  powerful,  that  the 
power  of  capital  is  solely  due  to  their  own  weakness, 
their  disorganization  in  the  struggle,  and  their  endur- 
ance. A  new  epoch  of  glorious  struggles  has  begun, 
when  the  proletariat  becomes  worthy  of  better  leaders 
than  the  scabs  of  Amsterdam.  The  new  leaders  will 
know  how  to  defend  the  proletarian  trenches  and  will 
take  the  offensive.  The  Red  International  of  Revolu- 
tionary Labor  Unions  will  very  soon  have  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  the  working  class  all  over  the 
world  and  then  the  proletariat  of  all  countries  will  pre- 
sent the  capitalist  class  its  bill  and  demand  full  and  im- 
mediate payment. 

Workers  all  the  world  over !  The  First  International 
Congress  of  Revolutionary  Labor  Unions  gathered  on 
that  bit  of  the  globe  which  was  wrenched  by  the  Rus- 
sian proletariat  from  the  hands  of  capital,  in  the  name 
of  the  millions  of  crippled  and  murdered  in  the  criminal 
war,  in  the  name  of  the  sufferings  of  the  working  class 
gone  through  under  the  dictatorship  of  capital,  in  the 
name  of  the  victims  of  the  bourgeoisie  terror,  in  the 
name  of  your  defeats  suffered  under  the  leadership  of 
the  yellow  traitors,  in  the  name  of  the  future  victories 
under  the  revolutionary  banner  of  the  Red  Labor 
Union  International  and  lastly  in  the  name  of  the  Rus- 
sian working  class  steadfastly  keeping  up  all  alone,  for 
the  fourth  year,  the  Red  flag  over  the  land  of  the 
Soviets  and  waiting  for  helo  from  its  comrades  beyond 
the  frontiers — we  are  calling  upon  you  to  join  our 
ranks,  we  call  you  to  the  last  and  decisive  battle. 

Workers  of  the  world,  unite! 

Long  live  the  Proletarian  Revolution ! 

Long  live  the  Dictatorship  of  the  Proletariat ! 

Long  live  the  International  Soviet  Republic! 

Long  live  Communism ! 

15 


II. 

Resolution 

Upon  the  report  of  Com.  Rosmer  on  the  activitiy  of 
the  Provisional  Council  of  Red  Trade  and  Industrial 
Unions  for  the  past  year. 

Upon  hearing  the  report  of  the  International  Council 
of  Labor  Unions  presented  by  Com.  Rosmer,  the  first 
International  Congress  of  Labor  Unions  recognizes 
that: 

1.  The  creation  of  the  International  Council  of  Revo- 
lutionary class  conscious  labor  unions  answers  to  the 
immediate  needs  of  the  revolutionary  working  masses 
in  their  struggle  against  capitalism. 

2.  That  from  its  inception  the  International  Council 
pursued  a  right  policy  in  regard  to  the  dictatorship  of 
the  bourgeoisie,  bringing  forth  against  it  the  proletar- 
ian dictatorship ; 

3.  That  the  International  Council  has  thus  correctly 
estimated  the  role  of  the  Amsterdam  International  Fed- 
eration, connected  with  the  labor  bureau  of  the  League 
of  Nations,  carrying  on  a  determined  and  merciless 
fight  against  it ; 

4.  That  during  the  eleven  months  of  its  existence,  the 
International  Council  has,  under  most  difficult  condi- 
tions, made  a  fair  effort  of  propaganda  to  bring  into  life 
its  fundamental  aims; 

5.  That  the  affiliation  to  the  International  Council 
of  millions  of  workers  in  forty-two  different  countries 
bears  evidence  of  the  great  attractive  power  of  the 
council  and  of  its  watchwords  and  proves  most  vividly 
the  importance  of  the  task  it  has  performed. 

Taking  the  above  into  consideration,  the  congress  re- 
solves : 

1.  To  approve  the  report  as  presented  by  Com.  Ros- 
mer  as  well  as  the  line  of  action  pursued  by  the  Inter- 
national Council  against  the  harmful  and  dangerous 
cry,  opposed  to  the*interests  of  the  revolutionary  work- 
ing class  movement,  viz.:  that  of  destroying  the  old, 
mass  trade  unions. 

16 


III. 

Resolution  on  the  Question  of  Relations  Between  the 

Red  Labor  Union  International  and  the 

Communist  International 

(On  the  report  of  Comrades  Rosmer  and  Tom  Mann.) 

Whereas,  The  struggle  between  labor  and  capital  in 
all  capitalist  countries  has  assumed,  as  a  result  of  the 
world  war  and  crisis,  an  exceptionally  acute,  implacable 
and  decisive  character. 

Whereas,  In  the  process  of  its  every-day  struggle  the 
laboring  masses  realize  ever  more  clearly  the  necessity 
of  eliminating  the  bourgeoisie  from  administration  of 
industry  and  consequently  from  political  power. 

Whereas,  The  above  result  can  be  obtained  solely  by 
establishing  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  and  a 
comunist  system, 

Whereas  in  the  struggle  to  preserve  the  bourgeois 
dictatorship,  all  the  capitalist  ruling  classes  have  al- 
ready succeeded  in  consolidating  and  concentrating  to  a 
high  degree  their  national  and  international  organiza- 
tions, political  as  well  as  economic  in  a  solid  front  of  all 
the  bourgeois  forces,  both  defensive  and  offensive, 
against  the  onrush  of  the  proletariat, 

Whereas,  The  logic  of  the  modern  class  struggle  de- 
mands the  greater  consolidation  of  the  proletarian 
forces  and  the  revolutionary  struggle  and  consequently 
means  that  there  must  be  the  closest  contact  and  or- 
ganic connection  between  the  different  forms  of  the 
revolutionary  labor  movement  and  primarily  between 
the  Third  Communist  International  and  the  Red  Labor 
Union  International  it  is  also  desirable  that  every  effort 
should  be  made,  in  the  national  field,  towards  the  es- 
tablishment of  similar  relations  between  the  Communist 
parties  and  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions ; 

Therefore  the  congress  resolves : 

1.  To  take  all  steps  uniting  together  in  the  most 
energetic  manner  all  the  labor  unions  in  one  united 
fighting  organization  with  one  direct  International  cen- 
ter— the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions. 

2.  To  establish  the  closest  possible  contact  with  the 
Third  Communist  International  as  the  vanguard  of  the 

17 


revolutionary  labor  movement  in  all  the  parts  of  the 
world  on  the  basis  of  joint  representation  at  both  execu- 
tive committees,  joint  conferences,  etc. 

3.  That  the  above  connection  should  have  an  organic 
and  business  character  and  be  expressed  in  the  joint 
preparation  of  pre-revolutionary  action  on  a  national 
and  international  scale. 

4.  That  it  is  imperative  for  every  country  to  strive 
towards  uniting  the  revolutionary  labor  union  organiza- 
tions and  the  establishment  of  the  closest  contact  be- 
tween the  Red  labor  unions  and  the  Communist  parties 
for  the  carrying  out  of  the  decisions  of  both  congresses. 


18 


IV. 

Resolution  on  the  Italian  Question. 

Having  heard  the  explanation  of  the  representatives 
of  the  Italian  Confederation  of  Labor,  Bianchi  and  Azzi- 
mondi,  and  after  discussion  of  same,  the  First  Interna- 
tional Congress  of  Revolutionary  Labor  Unions  de- 
clares : 

1.  The  Italian  Confederation  of  Labor  which  signed 
the  agreement  with  the  All-Russian  Council  of  Trade 
Unions  and  other  organizations  for  the  formation  of  the 
Red  International,  has  done  absolutely  nothing  during 
the  eleven  months  for  the  consolidation  of  the  created 
organization. 

Instead  of  attempting  to  strengthen  the  newly 
created  international  organization  of  revolutionary 
unions  opposed  to  the  yellow  Amsterdam  International, 
the  General  Confederation  of  Labor  of  Italy  participated 
in  the  Amsterdam  International,  maintaining  its  con- 
nection with  the  leaders  of  the  said  organization.  The 
Italian  Confederation  of  Labor  even  went  so  far  as  to 
attend  the  London  congress  of  the  Amsterdam  Interna- 
tional with  a  decisive  vote  and  did  not  cast  its  vote 
against  the  resolution  carried  against  the  Red  Interna- 
tional of  Labor  Unions. 

2.  Instead  of  weakening  its  ties  with  the  Amsterdam 
International  the  General  Confederation  of  Labor  of 
Italy,  on  the  contrary,  made  them  stronger  by  applying 
in  April  to  the  Amsterdam  International  for  help  in  its 
struggle  with  the  Fascisti. 

3.  The  congress  of  the  General  Confederation  of 
Labor  at  Livorno  decided  "to  take  part  without  reser- 
vation in  the  creation  of  the  Red  International  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  decisions  which  will  be  taken  at  the 
congress  of  trade  unions  in  Moscow."  In  spite  of  such 
a  decision  the  Italian  Confederation  of  Labor  sends  its 
delegates  only  for  the  purpose  of  information.  Thus 
the  confederation  deems  it  possible  to  take  part  in  the 
congress  of  the  Amsterdam  International  with  a  decis- 
ive vote  and  sends  to  the  congress  of  the  organization 
which  the  Livorno  convention  decided  to  join  without 

19 


reservations,  delegates   for  purposes   of  information 
only. 

4.  At  the  last  moment,  in  order  to  delay  the  con- 
gress, the  General  Confederation  of  Labor  attempted  to 
postpone  it  by  proposing  to  transfer  it  to  Reval  or 
Stockholm  under  the  pretext  that  greater  convenience 
in  the  verification  of  credentials  of  the  arriving  dele- 
gates would  be  available  there. 

5.  Stating  all  the  above  facts,  the  First  International 
Congress  of  Revolutionary  Labor  Unions  considers: 
that  the  Italian  proletariat  is  not  to  blame  for  such  a 
detrimental  duplicity,  harmful  to  the  proletariat  itself 
and  to  the  interests  of  the  world-wide  revolution ;  that 
the  entire  responsibility  for  this  seesaw  policy  lies  with 
the  leading  elements  of  the  General  Confederation  of 
Labor  who  endeavor  to  keep  the  Italian  proletariat  aloof 
from  the  revolutionary  unions  of  all  countries. 

Such  a  situation,  when  the  general  trade  union  cen- 
tral organization  of  the  country  does  lip-service  to  the 
Red  Labor  Union  International  but  de  facto  belongs  to 
the  Amsterdam  International,  can  no  longer  be  toler- 
ated. The  first  congress  of  the  Revolutionary  Labor 
Unions,  therefore,  requests  the  revolutionary  prole- 
tariat of  Italy,  all  local  unions,  labor  exchanges  and  na- 
tional federations  to  state  their  position  on  the  question 
as  to  what  organization  the  revolutionary  unions  of 
Italy  will  join — the  International  of  revolutionary 
struggle  or  the  International  standing  for  class  co- 
operation. Will  they  go  hand  in  hand  with  those  who 
stand  for  the  social  revolution  and  the  dictatorship  of 
the  proletariat,  or  with  the  bourgeoise — with  the  Red 
International  of  Labor  Unions  or  with  the  Amsterdam 
International. 

This  congress  feels  quite  sure  that  the  revolutionary 
proletariat  of  Italy  will  very  soon  make  their  choice  and, 
even  before  the  next  International  congress,  the  Italian 
General  Confederation  of  Labor  will  take  its  place  which 
the  Italian  proletariat  fully  deserves  among  the  revo- 
lutionary unions. 


20 


RESOLUTION  ON  THE  QUESTION  OF  TACTICS 

(Upon  report  of  Comrade  Losovsky.) 
1.    The  General  Situation  of  the  Struggle 

1.  The  problems  and  tactics  of  the  trade  unions  are 
determined  by  the  conditions  and  intensity  of  the  class 
struggle  on  an  international  and  national  scale.  As  a 
starting  point  we  must  take  the  irrefutable  fact,  that 
modern  society  has  entered  upon  a  stage  of  decompo- 
sition and  of  breaking  up  of  the  old  capitalistic  relations 
and  bonds  and,  faces  ultimate  collapse.  The  symptoms 
of  this  decay  are  revealed  by  the  enormously  grown  na- 
tional indebtedness;  temporary  prosperity  in  some 
branches  of  industry  rapidly  followed  by  a  sharp  indus- 
trial crisis;  by  the  wars  still  being  fought,  on  many 
fronts  by  the  economic  instability  in  many  of  the  oldest 
capitalistic  countries  of  Europe ;  by  the  atrocious  indus- 
trial crisis  raging  throughout  the  world;  by  the  enor- 
mous growth  of  unemployment;  by  slackening  of  agri- 
culture; by  the  mountains  of  goods  piled  up  in  some 
countries  while  at  the  same  time  there  is  a  total  lack  of 
commodities  in  others ;  by  the  inevitability  of  new  wars 
for  the  extraction  of  conditions  of  labor,  and  finally  by 
the  absolute  impossibility  of  re-establishing  economic 
stability  and  political  and  social  equilibrium  by  the  nor- 
mal methods  of  capitalistic  exploitation. 

2.  On  the  background  of  ths  growing  economic  crisis 
and  the  unparalleled  devastations  caused  by  the  long 
years  of  war,  the  social  struggle  grows  sharper  in  all 
countries,  acquiring  a  severity  never  yet  seen.  Strikes 
of  unusual  size  are  breaking  out  in  one  country  after 
another,  the  proletariat  attempts  by  means  of  them 
to  maintain  its  position  against  the  assault  of  capital. 
But  the  proletariat  is  conducting  its  struggle  in  scat- 
tered, isolated  groups  thus  condemning  its  best  or- 
ganized ranks  to  a  total  defeat  and  destruction. 

3.  The  struggle  of  the  working  class  and  its  organi- 
zation is  complicated  by  the  fact  that  the  bourgeoise 
has  availed  itself  in  full  of  the  lessons  of  the  war  and 
the  revolution — and  is  strenuously  creating  and 
strengthening  its  organization  for  the  material  destruc- 

21 


tion  of  the  revolutionary  movement.  There  is  not  a 
single  bourgeois  country  which  besides  the  usual,  nor- 
mal organizations  for  repression  (such  as  the  army, 
police,  department  of  justice,  etc.)  has  not  created  new 
organizations,  voluntary  bodies  of  representatives  of 
the  ruling  classes  for  the  armed  suppression  and  pre- 
vention of  the  uprising  of  the  rebellious  workers. 

4.  In  this  struggle  against  the  increasing  dissatis- 
faction among  the  masses,  the  bourgeoise  presents  a 
united  front,  throwing  into  this  fight  the  whole  of  its 
economic  organizations.  It  realizes  perfectly  that  only 
the  highest  degree  of  unity  and  concentration  of  forces, 
centralized  organization,  and  the  normal  and  material 
support  of  its  state  machinery  and  the  creation  of  spe- 
cial militant  organizations  can  save  it  from  defeat  or 
at  least  put  off  the  approaching  social  revolution.  The 
bourgeoise  never  separates  politics  from  economics. 

5.  The  problems  of  the  unions  in  the  period  of  peace- 
ful organic  development  of  capitalist  society  consisted 
in  raising  through  mass  organizations  the  standard  of 
living  among  the  workers,  in  improving  the  conditions 
of  labor,  and,  relying  upon  the  gains  already  obtained, 
in  gradually  moving  forward  towards  the  realization  of 
socialist  society.  The  reformist  unions  consider  a  slow 
and  gradual  transition  from  capitalism  to  socialism  pos- 
sible by  means  of  the  transformation  of  the  bourgeois 
democracy  into  a  socialist  democracy.  The  revolution- 
ary unions  old  that  without  the  overthrow  of  capital- 
ism by  force  the  working  class  cannot  abolish  the  sys- 
tem of  wage  slavery. 

6.  The  revolutionary  unions  always  aimed  at  the 
consolidation,  the  disciplining  and  training  of  the  mass 
as  their  basic  tasks.  This  problem  is  especially  impor- 
tant in  the  present  period  of  disintegration  of  capitalist 
society.  The  labor  union  is  the  school  and  the  workshop 
of  communism.  Its  problem  is  to  prepare  the  workers 
for  the  overthrow  of  the  capitalist  system. 

The  main  question  consists  in  how  and  on  which  basis 
of  the  everyday  struggle  this  preparation  and  consoli- 
dation of  the  masses  will  take  place.  The  problems 
must  be  put  before  the  working  class  and  how  to  or- 
ganize its  everyday  struggle  and  link  it  up  with  the 
general  problems  of  the  working  class  bringing  it  up 
to  the  ultimate  grapple  with  its  class  enemy.    The  con- 

22 


ditions  of  this  struggle  have  become  considerably  com- 
plicated at  the  present  time. 

The  interrelations  of  its  many  elements  are  entirely 
different  than  they  were  before  the  war  or  during  the 
war.  Threfore  the  task  of  the  unions  is  different  and 
the  methods  and  means  of  struggle  must  also  be  differ- 
ent. 

2.     The  Labor  Unions  Before  the  War 

7.  During  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
and  at  the  beginning  of*  the  twentieth  century  there 
were  three  main  groups  of  labor  union  movements: 
Anglo-Saxon  ( trade  unionism  ) ;  German-Austrian 
(social  democratic  reformism) ;  French-Spanish*  (revo- 
lutionary syndicalism).  These  three  groups  in  the  in- 
ternational labor  movement  differed  from  one  another 
in  method  as  well  as  in  character.  They  presented 
three  different  ideologies  and  programs  of  action. 

8.  The  basic  feature  of  Anglo-Saxon  trade  unionism 
was  the  narrow  craftism  and  political  neutrality  with 
regard  to  socialist  parties,  concentrating  its  entire  at- 
tention upon  the  immediate  concrete  problems  of  the 
day;  trade  unionism  accepted  the  social  struggle  only 
from  the  narrow  point  of  view  of  craft  unionism,  and 
from  this  angle  they  aproached  the  solution  of  all  the 
economic  and  social  problems.  The  trade  union  move- 
ment included  chiefly  the  aristocracy  of  the  working 
class.  The  very  philosophy  of  trade  unionism  is  the 
philosophy  of  labor  aristrocracy. 

Capital  and  labor  were  considered  by  the  theoretical 
and  practical  exponents  of  trade  unionism  not  as  two 
deadly  class  enemies  but  as  two  factors  of  mutually 
supplementing  each  other.  They  contended  that  the 
development  of  society  entirely  depends  upon  the  har- 
mony between  capital  and  labor  and  the  just  distribu- 
tion among  them  of  the  social  and  public  wealth. 

9.  The  German-Austrian  trade  union  movement 
which  appeared  later  than  the  Anorlo-Saxon  type,  hav- 
ing formed  under  different  circumstances,  had  from  the 
start  been  invested  with  socialist  ideas.  The  social 
democrats  of  Germany  and  Austria  stood  at  the  very 
cradle  of  the  trade  union  movement,  thus  transmitting 
to  it  the  social  democratic  spirit.  But  the  social  demo- 
cratic program  and  tactics  in  regard  to  the  trade  union 
movement  have  assumed  a  character  of  reformist 

23 


socialism.  The  trade  unions  of  Germany  were  the 
cradle  of  reformism,  the  very  substance  of  which  may 
be  reduced  to  the  following :  they  advocate  gradual  and 
peaceful  development  through  democracy  to  socialism ; 
they  obscure  working  class  interests;  they  fear  revo- 
lution and  white  terror  hoping  at  the  same  time  that 
the  development  of  democratic  forms  would  automati- 
cally bring  about  socialism  without  any  revolutions  or 
social  conflicts.  With  reference  to  the  purely  trade 
union  field  their  intentions  are  to  keep  them  out  of  the 
political  and  revolutionary  struggle;  they  advocate 
neutrality  towards  revolutionary  socialism  and  are 
closely  bound  with  reformist  socialism.  Apart  from 
that,  they  extremely  overestimate  the  benefit  of  collec- 
tive bargaining  and  the  system  of  conciliation  boards. 
In  this  manner  they  expect  to  establish  such  social  rela- 
tions, under  which  the  workers  would  enjoy  in  the  poli- 
tical and  economic  domains  equal  rights  with  the  capi- 
talists, while  the  system  of  exploitation  is  maintained. 

10.  Revolutionary  syndicalism  which  developed  as  a 
reaction  against  the  opportunism  of  the  French  Socialist 
party  had  as  its  basis  a  certain  number  of  revolution- 
ary points.  It  advanced  the  idea  of  direct  action,  im- 
mediate struggle  of  the  masses,  advocated  the  general 
strike,  and  forcible  overthrow  of  capitalism ;  conducted 
anti-militarist  agitation  and  propaganda  and  created 
the  anti-government  theory.  It  also  created  a  theory 
according  to  which  the  trade  unions  are  the  only  organi- 
zations which  will  bring  about  the  revolution  and  will 
themselves  build  up  the  socialist  society. 

The  theoreticians  of  revolutionary  syndicalism  pre- 
tended that  it  is  the  synthesis  of  Proudhonism  and 
Marxism. 

11.  Revolutionary  syndicalism  has  brought  to  light  a 
number  of  ideas — and  this  has  been  its  merit — which 
placed  it  high  above  all  the  other  forms  of  the  labor 
union  movement  and  brought  it  into  close  contact  with 
revolutionary  pressure  of  the  masses  upon  capital  and 
revolutionary  pressure  of  the  masses  upon  caapital  and 
state,  abolition  of  capitalism,  propaganda  of  the  social 
revolution — all  this  must  be  placed  to  the  credit  of  the 
revolutionary  syndicalists  and  gives  the  positive  side  of 
revolutionary  syndicalism.  On  the  other  hand  we  find 
in  syndicalism  the  principle  of  independence  and  neu- 
trality towards  all  political  parties,  including  the  poll- 

24 


tical  party  of  the  proletariat,  the  negation  even  of  pro- 
letarian state,  the  overestimation  of  the  general  strike 
and  a  wrong  attitude  towards  the  palliative  demands  of 
the  workers.  Economics  and  politics  are  two  different 
things  for  the  revolutionary  syndicalists,  although  it  is 
quite  clear  that  "politics  is  nothing  but  concentrated 
economics. "  These  latter  ideas,  in  spite  of  their  seem- 
ing revolutionary  character,  are  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
being  made  use  of  by  the  bourgeoise,  although  the  latter 
has  never  made  any  difference,  in  its  own  fighting,  be- 
tween politics  and  economics. 

12.  The  labor  union  movement  grew  up  and  took 
shape  chiefly  during  the  period  of  peaceful,  organic  de- 
velopment of  capitalist  society  and  it  therefore  pos- 
sessed the  features,  which  permitted  the  bourgeoise  to 
utilize  it,  especially  during  the  war,  for  the  benefit  of 
its  class  interests. 

These  peculiar  features — the  narrow  craft  unionism, 
the  exclusiveness  of  the  trade  unions,  the  fight  of  some 
unions  against  women's  labor,  deep  devotion  to  the 
Fatherland  and  national  industry,  etc. — found  their 
maximum  expression  during  the  war,  when  class  inter- 
ests clashed  with  national  interests. 

3.    The  Labor  Unions  During  the  War 

13.  The  world  war  resulting  from  the  antagonism  of 
national  zest  of  capitalists,  demonstrated  to  the  full  ex- 
tent the  influence  of  the  bourgeoise  upon  the  working 
c^ass  and  its  organizations.  The  trade  unions  in  most 
of  the  largest  countries  of  Europe,  immediately  on  the 
declaration  of  war  ceased  to  exist  as  militant  class  or- 
ganizations and  turned  at  once  into  military  imperial- 
ists organizations,  whose  task  consisted  only  in  assist- 
ing the  government  and  bourgeoise,  to  smash  its  com- 
petitors for  the  world  market  by  joint  efforts  and  at  any 
cost. 

The  old  alignments  of  the  trade  union  movement  have 
disappeared.  The  leaders  of  labor  unions  of  every  coun- 
try, with  very  few  exceptions,  despite  the  fact  that  they 
were  fighting  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  firing  line, 
have  found  a  common  language  with  their  own  bour- 
geoise; the  interests  of  the  national  bourgeoise  tri- 
umphed over  the  class  interests. 

14.  The  period  of  the  world  war  was  a  period  of 
moral  decay  of  the  labor  unions  in  all  capitalist  coun- 

25 


tries.  The  overwhelming  majority  of  the  leaders  of  the 
trade  union  movement  were  the  agents  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

They  take  upon  themselves  the  function  of  smother- 
ing all  attempts  of  revolutionary  protest ;  they  repeat- 
edly sanction  measures  which  render  the  conditions  of 
labor  worse,  to  please  the  capitalists,  the  leaders  have 
many  times  sanctioned  the  imprisonment  of  the  work- 
ers in  the  factories;  they  permitted  the  privileges 
gained  by  years  of  struggle  to  be  annulled.  In  short 
they  executed  submissively  all  the  commands  of  the 
ruling  classes. 

15.  The  opposition  to  war  and  the  movements  of 
masses  that  grew  out  of  it  were  nipped  in  the  bud  pri- 
marily by  the  very  leaders  of  the  old  trade  union  move- 
ment. The  fear  of  revolution  which  for  many  years  had 
kept  back  the  ruling  classes  from  war  and  military  ad- 
ventures had  disappeared,  for  not  only  the  bourgeoise, 
but  the  workers,  organized  in  trade  unions,  were 
against  the  revolution.  This  conversion  of  the  leaders 
of  the  trade  union  movement  into  watch  dogs  of  capi- 
talism is  the  greatest  moral  victory  of  the  ruling  class 
and  at  the  same  time  the  greatest  defeat  of  the  work- 
ing class  during  the  world  war. 

16.  The  nationalist  activities  of  the  trade  union  lead- 
ers caused  deep  dissensions  in  the  masses.  Instead  of 
the  gospel  of  class  struggle  and  class  solidarity,  the  only 
appeal  of  the  leaders,  to  the  working  class,  which  was 
heard  for  years  was  that  of  urging  the  workers  to 
strain  all  their  forces  against  their  national  foe,  the  ap- 
peal for  the  defense  of  fatherland,  for  their  sacred  unity 
of  the  classes.  This  treacherous  work  carried  on  with 
the  support  of  the  bourgeois  press  and  the  financial  aid 
of  the  government  was  the  principal  reason  of  the 
prolongation  of  the  war  and  of  the  innumerable  human 
sacrifices,  which  the  working  class  was  compelled  to 
make  as  a  result  of  the  international  slaughter. 

The  war  was  the  manifestation  of  the  unparalleled 
bankruptcy  of  all  the  three  forms  of  the  labor  union 
movement.  The  leaders  of  the  trade  unions  of  England 
and  America,  of  Germany  and  Austria,  and  the  revo- 

26 


lutionary  syndicalists  of  France  rallied  on  the  platform 
of  the  betrayal  of  the  interests  of  the  working  class. 

5.    The  Labor  Unions  After  the  War 

17.  The  postwar  policy  of  the  labor  union  leaders  in 
various  countries  had  the  same  basic  features  as  their 
policy  in  time  of  war.  It  consisted  in  the  prolongation . 
of  the  "sacred  unity"  of  classes  concluded  during  the 
war,  in  tending  to  subject  the  interests  of  the  working 
masses  to  the  interests  of  the  re-establishment  of  the 
capitalist  economic  order. 

18.  In  France  this  policy  assumed  a  most  disgusting 
character  because  its  advocates  are  the  revolutionary 
syndicalists  of  yesterday,  anti-statists  and  anti-militar- 
ists. 

The  leaders  of  the  General  Confederation  of  Labor 
are  strenuous'y  striving  for  the  honor  of  sitting  in  the 
committees  which  are  preparing  the  Versailles  Peace 
Treaty.  They  take  the  initiative  of  making  the  Ger- 
man workers  pay  to  France  indemnities  for  the  losses 
inflicted  by  the  war,  of  breaking  up  the  revolutionary 
strike  movement.  Side  by  side  with  the  government 
and  the  bourgeoise  they  are  fighting  against  even  the 
idea  of  social  revolution.  They  proclaim  the  principle 
of  the  reconstruction  of  capitalism  upon  the  basis  of 
collaboration  of  all  the  vital  forces  "of  present  day 
society,"  the  workers,  the  bosses  and  the  government 
representatives.  This  policy  inside  the  country  leads 
the  bourgeoisie  to  greater  arroorance,  corrupts  the  pro- 
letarian consciousness,  and  leads  to  the  disappointment 
of  the  masses  in  revolutionary  slogans  and  appeals.  The 
more  the  General  Confederation  of  Labor  is  subjected 
and  dependent  on  the  bourgeoise,  the  more  it  cries 
about  "independence"  and  "automony"  of  the  labor 
union  movement,  with  regards  to  communism,  refer- 
ring to  the  "Charte  d'Amiens." 

19.  On  the  basis  of  this  unheard  of  treachery  and 
shameless  betrayal  of  the  elementary  revolutionary  and 
class  principles,  a  strong  movement  has  grown  up  in 
France  which  expressed  itself  in  the  organization  of  the 
central  committee  of  revolutionary  syndicates. 

The  revolutionary  opposition  has  already  consoli- 
dated about  half  of  the  members  of  the  General  Con- 

27 


federation  of  Labor  but  in  spite  of  its  numerical  growth 
it  is  weak  because  of  insufficient  internal  unity. 

The  entire  opposition  is  united  in  its  struggle  against 
both  obvious  and  secret  treachery  of  the  interests  of 
the  working  class.  But  while  the  opposition  is  conduct- 
ing this  struggle  and  is  even  gaining  victory,  owing  to 
its  single  front,  still  it  has  not  yet  made  quite  clear 
the  concrete  problems,  the  program  and  its  militant 
slogans.  The  opposition  consisting  of  anarchists,  revo- 
lutionary syndicalists  and  communists,  proclaims  the 
slogan:  "Back  to  the  Amiens  Charter/'  This  slogan 
is  already  therefore  insufficient,  as  the  majority  of  the 
General  Confederation  of  Labor  is  also  referring  to 
the  Amiens  Charter. 

20.  The  Amiens  Charter,  which  was  the  result  of  the 
workers'  protest  against  the  opportunism  of  the  social- 
ist parties,  cannot  be  considered  as  a  basis  of  activities 
not  only  because  it  was  written  fifteen  years  ago,  before 
the  war  and  the  revolution,  but  chiefly  because  it  did 
not  even  at  that  period  answer  all  the  questions  that 
stood  before  the  working  class. 

The  world  war,  the  disintegration  of  capitalism,  the 
revolution,  all  taken  together,  absolutely  dictate  to  the 
minority  of  the  General  Confederation  of  Labor  of 
France,  not  to  stay  within  the  frame  of  the  antiquated 
Amiens  Charter,  but  to  draft  a  new  charter  in  accord- 
ance with  the  new  circumstances. 

21.  The  leaders  of  the  German  labor  unions  have 
played  after  the  war  essentially  the  part  of  saviors  of 
the  German  bourgeoise  and  the  German  military  clique. 
The  revolution  of  1918  has  so  much  scared  the  Ger- 
man bourgeoise  that  it  turned  to  the  trade  union  move- 
ment for  protection  against  the  transformation  of  the 
bourgeois  revolution  into  a  social  revolution. 

The  leaders  of  the  labor  unions  have  concluded  an 
agreement  with  the  German  bourgeoise  for  creation  of 
labor  conciliation  boards  composed  of  equal  numbers  of 
workers  and  employers,  on  which  the  entire  post-war 
activities  of  the  German  trade  union  movement  are 
based.  The  principle  applied  to  discussion  of  social  re- 
forms was  the  basis  of  the  agreement.  The  result  of 
this  class  co-operation  philosophy  was  the  economic 
and  political  domination  of  the  bourgeoise.  Breaking 
down  revolutionary  movement  of  the  masses  by  the 

28 


active  aid  of  the  labor  unions  was  the  consequence  of 
this  agreement. 

The  leaders  of  the  German  labor  unions  forgetting 
the  working  class  interests,  have  taken  up  the  work  of 
restoration  of  capitalism,  and  have  even  not  stopped 
supporting  the  bloody  reprisals  against  the  working 
class. 

22.  This  counter-revolutionary  part  played  by  the 
trade  union  bureaucracy  which,  thanks  to  the  misery 
caused  by  the  war,  became  the  leader  of  many  millions 
of  working  people,  had  caused  big  protests  among  the 
workers. 

This  protest  inside  the  labor  union  movement  has 
found  its  expression  in  the  formation  of  opposition 
nuclei  of  Communist  groups  within  the  unions  which, 
spreading  like  network  all  over  Germany,  have  assumed 
the  character  of  a  mass  movement. 

The  hopeless  view  on  trade  unions  found  its  expres- 
sion in  the  slogan  "smash  the  trade  unions,"  which  is 
contrary  to  the  working  class  interests  of  the  social 
revolution.  Besides  the  opposition  in  the  old  trade 
unions,  there  are  a  few  groups  outside  of  them  (Free 
Labor  Union  of  Gelsenkirchen,  General  Labor  Union, 
Syndicalist  Union).  Each  of  these  bodies  is  working 
its  own  way,  without  conducting  any  co-ordinated 
struggle  against  the  capitalists  and  their  supporters 
from  the  ranks  of  trade  unions. 

To  these  groups  have  been  added  the  expelled  unions, 
since  the  trade  union  bureaucracy,  being  terrified  by  the 
growth  of  the  opposition  within  the  old  labor  union 
movement  and  of  the  Communist  nuclei  have  started  to 
expel  from  the  centralized  union  branches,  districts  and 
locals  in  a  body  as  well  as  separate  individuals. 

23.  The  trade  unions  of  England  immediately  after 
the  war,  began  to  carry  on  a  stubborn  struggle  to  im- 
prove the  conditions  of  labor  and  retain  the  position 
they  conquered. 

The  great  strikes  of  the  coal  miners  and  other  trades 
show  the  strength  and  obstinacy  of  the  English  prole- 
tariat in  the  struggle.  The  period  after  the  war  has 
shown  to  what  extent  certain  leaders  in  the  labor  move- 
ment in  England  are  connected  with  the  bourgeoise. 
Each  clash,  each  great  conflict,  has  met  with  resist- 

29 


ance  first  of  all  inside  the  organization  itself,  as  well  as 
in  other  labor  unions. 

These  pecularities  of  the  English  labor  union  move- 
ment accompanied  by  unquestionable  growth  of  revo- 
lutionary, though  vaguely  understood,  ideas  are  very 
characteristic.  The  English  labor  movement  in  com- 
parison to  the  pre-war  period  has  undoubtedly  made  a 
great  step  forward. 

24.  During  the  war  the  Shop  Stewards*  and  Work- 
ers' Committees  sprang  up  which  became  comparatively 
very  effective  during  the  years  1917  and  1918,  after 
that  time  they  lost  their  former  influence,  though 
the  recognition  of  the  necessity  of  a  revolutionary 
struggle  and  revolutionary  ideas  generally  have  grown 
to  a  considerable  degree  among  the  masses  of  England. 
The  weakness  of  the  opposition  elements  of  England  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  did  not  co-ordinate  their  work 
among  the  masses.  The  unity  of  all  these  revolutionary 
elements  could  be  accomplished  by  the  widening  and 
deepening  of  the  activity  of  the  shop  stewards  and 
workers'  committees. 

The  problem  under  such  conditions  is  not  to  take 
individual  prominent  members  from  the  mass  of  work- 
ers, from  the  unions  in  order  to  create  certain  extra — 
union  organizations,  but  to  see  to  it  that  most  con- 
scious, revolutionary  active  elements  should  work  or- 
ganically in  the  very  thick  of  the  working  class ;  in  the 
factories  and  shops,  in  the  lowest  nuclei  of  the  unions, 
striving  to  secure  responsible,  leading  positions  in  the 
labor  union  movement  from  top  to  bottom. 

Only  such  a  method — systematic,  unremitting  and 
steady  work — can  bring  real  and  permanent  results  in 
a  country  with  as  gigantic  a  labor  movement,  saturated 
with  old  traditions  and  conservatism,  as  the  English 
labor  union  movement  is. 

25.  In  America,  as  in  no  other  country,  the  labor 
unions  and  their  leading  elements  play  the  part  of 
direct  agents  of  capital.  For  Gompers  and  his  clique, 
who  are  at  the  head  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  even  the  Amsterdam  International  is  considered 
too  revolutionary  and  they  find  it  impossible  to  par- 
ticipate in  it  on  account  of  its  "excessive  revolution- 
ism/'   The  A.  F.  of  L.  puts  all  its  hopes  in  the  righteous- 

30 


ness  of  the  bourgeoisie  and  refuses  to  listen  to  the  feasi- 
bility of  a  revolutionary  struggle  for  a  new  order. 

This  is  the  most  typical,  classical  example  of  merg- 
ing of  the  leaders  of  the  labor  movement  with  the  bour- 
geoise  and  the  American  millionaires  is  the  main  rea- 
son why  these  Gompersites  talk  so  much  and  so  loud 
about  autonomy  and  independence  in  the  labor  union 
movement. 

The  A.  F.  of  L.  serves  as  a  most  reliable  tool  in  the 
hands  of  the  bourgeoisie  for  suppressing  the  revolu- 
tionary movement.  But  it,  too,  is  drawn  into  the  strug- 
gle, for  the  bourgeoise  is  not  satisfied  with  its  devotion 
— the  capitalists  want  to  extract  from  the  A.  F.  of  L. 
greater  benefits  than  they  have  done  so  far. 

And  if  the  A.  F.  of  L.  does  not  yet  enter  the  struggle 
itself,  then  separate  detachments  of  it,  local  organiza- 
tions, are  getting  more  and  more  into  conflicts  with 
capital  and  machinery  of  the  state.  If  not  in  point  of 
organization  then  in  point  of  ideas  they  are  more  and 
more  receding  from  the  basic  principles  upon  which  the 
A.  F.  of  L.  rests. 

26.  The  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World,  an  inde- 
pendent organization  in  America,  is  too  weak  to  take 
the  place  of  the  old  labor  unions.  The  I.  W.  W.  have 
a  purely  anarchistic  prejudice  against  politics  and  poli- 
tical action,  being  divided  into  supporters  and  oppon- 
ents of  such  a  cardinal  question  as  proletarian  dictator- 
ship. Besides  these  two  organizations  there  are  inde- 
pendent unions,  only  formally  independent  of  the  A.  F. 
of  L. ;  many  of  them  are  independent  in  their  ideological 
turn  of  thoughts  as  well  as  in  practice  of  their  counter- 
revolutionary leaders.  Therefore  the  question  of  creat- 
ing revolutionary  cells  and  groups  inside  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  and  the  independent  unions  is  of 
vital  importance.  There  is  no  other  way  by  which  one 
could  gain  the  working  mass  in  America,  than  to  lead 
a  systematic  struggle  within  the  unions. 

27.  In  Italy  the  circumstances  are  very  peculiar.  A 
great  majority  of  the  Italian  proletariat  accepts  the 
revolutionary  struggle  and  the  dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat. The  leaders  of  the  general  Confederation  of 
Labor  have  no  faith  in  revolutionary  methods  and  are 
nearer  in  their  theory  and  practice  to  opportunism  than 
to  revolutionary  socialism.  Alongside  with  the  Gen- 
eral  Confederation   of   Labor   exists   the   Syndicalist 

31 


Union — and  independent  unions  which,  contrary  to 
those  of  America,  are  saturated  with  a  deep  revolu- 
tionary, communist  spirit.  They  practically  accept  the 
program  of  the  Third  International  and  the  Interna- 
tional of  Revolutionary  Trade  and  Industrial  Unions. 

28.  In  the  rest  of  the  European  countries  and  in 
America  the  labor  movement  has  moved  swiftly  for- 
ward. Inside  of  many  old  unions,  in  many  countries, 
there  have  been  formed  important  opposition  minori- 
ties (Czecho-S^ovakia,  Poland,  etc.),  in  other  coun. 
tries  (Bulgaria,  Jugoslavia,  Norway,  etc.),  the  major- 
ity is  in  favor  of  the  social  revolution  and  of  the  dic- 
tatorship of  the  proletariat.  This  peculiar  state  of  the 
labor  movement  in  all  countries  shows  the  deep  sig- 
nificance of  the  change  the  working  masses  have  un- 
dergone. The  lessons  of  the  war  and  the  Russian 
revolution  were  not  lost  for  the  large  masses.  The 
revolutionizing  of  the  unions  is  a  result  of  the  objec- 
tive development  of  events.  The  aim  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Red  Labor  Unions  is  to  facilitate  the  process  of 
crystalization  of  this  consciousness  and  the  organiza- 
tion of  this  growng  elemental  revolutionary  movement 
for  a  decisive  battle  against  the  bourgeoise  for  the 
workers'  dictatorship. 

5.    Neutrality,  Independence  and  Socialism 

29.  Socialism  has  ceased  to  be  merely  a  matter  of 
theoretical  discussion ;  it  is  a  practical  question  of  the 
day.  Therefore  each  labor  organization  must  take  a 
definite  stand  on  the  subject.  The  failure  to  answer 
the  imperative  class  requirements  makes  the  labor  or- 
ganization a  passive  onlooker  in  the  present  class  strug- 
gle, in  other  words  such  an  attitude  indirectly  assists 
the  enemy.  Each  union  must  decide  which  way  to  turn 
— to  opportunism  or  to  the  revolutionary  socialism,  that 
is  communism.  Herein  lies  the  fault  of  neutrality  and 
"independence." 

30.  The  aims  of  the  revolutionary  unions  are  the 
destruction  of  capitalism  and  the  establisment  of  a 
socialist  order.  The  proletarian  revolutionary  party, 
the  Communist  party,  is  aiming  toward  the  same  goal. 

Because  the  aim  and  the  basic  methods  of  struggle 
are  the  same,  the  political  and  economic  organization 
of  the  proletariat  cannot  exist  side  by  side  without 
crossing  one  another  in  the  struggle.    Their  daily  strug- 

32 


gle  is  interwoven.  No  single  campaign  can  be  carried 
through  with  any  degree  of  success,  without  mutual 
aid  and  ever-increasing  contact.  Isolated  action  is 
foredoomed  to  failure  and  defeat. 

31.  The  revolutionary  trade  unions,  therefore,  were 
always  opposed  to  that  idea  of  neutrality  and  the  in- 
dependence of  the  trade  unions  from  the  revolutionary 
party  of  the  proletariat.  They  knew  that  such  ideas 
were  only  a  cloak  for  the  scheme  hatched  by  bourgeois 
reformers  who  devided  the  economic  struggle  of  the 
proletariat  from  the  political  struggle  with  the  object 
of  weakening  and  corrupting  the  working  masses.  Poli- 
tical neutrality  and  independence  of  trade  unions  from 
revolutionary  socialism  always  has  been,  and  still  is, 
the  motto  brought  forward  by  the  most  backward  sec- 
tions of  the  labor  movement  of  all  countries. 

During  the  last  few  years,  the  closer  were  the  ties 
binding  the  trade  union  leaders  of  all  countries  to  the 
League  of  Nations,  and  the  more  these  leaders  are 
being  controlled  by  the  bourgeoise  of  their  respective 
countries,  the  louder  and  stauncher  has  become  their 
championsip  of  the  idea  of  independence  of  the  trade 
union  from  the  Communist  International.  This  idea 
must,  therefore,  be  decidely  and  totally  rejected. 

32.  The  task  of  the  trade  unions  is  to  fight  the 
neutralists'  views  and  mentality  which  bring  decay  and 
corruption  into  the  labor  ranks  and  organizations.  Any 
trade  union  drops  its  neutrality  and  independence  to 
the  extent,  it  participates  in  the  social  struggle  and 
fight  against  capitalism  and  capitalist  domination. 

The  present  situation  imperatively  dictates  that  the 
revolutionary  unions  and  the  communist  party  should 
act  together  in  fighting  for  the  social  revolution  and 
for  the  distatorship  of  the  proletariat.  But  such  con- 
certed action  is  the  best  practical  refutation  of  the 
thoroughly  worn  out  and  purely  theoretical  view  upon 
neutrality  and  independence — a  doctrine  that  has  never 
been  carried  out  in  actual  practice. 

33.  Under  present  conditions,  every  economic  strug- 
gle inevitably  takes  political  significance. 

The  struggle  itself  under  such  conditions,  whatever 
the  numerical  strength  of  the  workers  involved  in  a 
given  country  may  be,  can  be  really  revolutionary  and 
be  carried  out  with  the  greatest  benefit  for  the  working 
class  as  a  whole,  only  when  the  revolutionary  trade 

33 


unions  wili  march  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  closest 
co-operation  and  unity  with  the  communist  party  of 
the  given  country. 

The  theory  and  practice  of  splitting  the  struggle  of 
the  working  class  into  two  independent  halves  is  utterly 
detrimental,  especially  at  the  present  moment. 

Every  mass  action  requires  the  utmost  concentration 
of  forces,  which  is  possible  only  when  the  entire  revo- 
lutionary energies  of  the  working  class  are  strained  to 
the  utmost,  i.  e.,  when  all  its  revolutionary  and  com- 
munist elements  are  brought  into  play.  Independent 
revolutionary  action  by  the  communist  party  and  the 
revolutionary  red  unions  is  foredoomed  to  failure  and 
ruin.  That  is  why  unity  of  action,  organic  connection 
of  Communist  Parties  and  trade  unions,  is  a  necessary 
requisite  for  the  successful  struggle  against  Capitalism. 

VI-    The  Amsterdam  International 

34.  The  anti-class  war  policy  of  the  trade-unions  of 
the  belligerent  countries  caused  the  break-down  of  all 
the  international  connections  that  had  existed  prior  to 
the  war,  such  as  the  International  Secretariat  headed 
by  Legien,  as  well  as  all  the  independent  international 
federations  (of  textile  workers,  metai  workers,  etc.). 
They  broke  up — according  to  their  respective  locations 
— into  pro-Ally  and  pro-German  units. 

35.  The  general  misery  bred  by  the  war,  stronger 
class  antagonism,  insecurity,  uncertainty  about!  to- 
morrow, growing  unemployment,  and  utter  disappoint- 
ment with  the  results  of  the  war,  acted  as  a  great 
impelling  force  in  driving  the  masses  into  the  trade- 
unions.  The  war  brought  to  the  surface  the  lowest 
strata  of  workers,  aroused  them,  made  them  distrust 
their  own  individual  efforts,  and  forced  the  most  back- 
ward worker  to  do  some  hard  thinking  on  the  causes 
and  the  consequences  of  the  disaster  which  all  mankind 
is  now  living  through.  The  feeling  of  international 
solidarity,  so  long  repressed  during  the  war,  awoke 
with  new  force  in  the  working  masses  that  had  been 
torn  up  by  the  war  into  national  units ;  this  new  feeling 
called  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  international  connec- 
tions, the  necessity  for  which  is  instinctively  felt  even 
by  the  most  backward  sections  of  the  working  class. 

36.  Hence  the  efforts  of  the  bankrupt  leaders  of  the 

34 


trade-unions  in  taking  the  initiative  in  rebuilding  the 
International  and  getting  at  the  helm  of  the  movement. 
Having  attempted  to  create  a  trade-union  International 
of  the  Entente  type  (Leeds,  1916),  the  leaders  of  the 
Entente  unions  began,  immediately  after  the  war,  to 
"restore"  the  international  connections  by  taking  part 
in  some  of  the  labor  commissions  organized  for  the 
purpose  of  working  out  supplementary  articles  to  the 
Versailles  Treaty.  In  this  way  they  have  sealed,  on  an 
international  scale,  the  treacherous  work  which  they 
had  carried  on  within  their  respective  bourgeois 
countries. 

37.  The  victory  of  "democracy"  in  the  international 
slaughter  was  signalized  by  creating  the  Labor  Bureau 
as  a  part  of  the  League  of  Nations,  which  represents 
te  highest  revelation  of  the  idea  of  peaceful  develop- 
ment and  class  collaboration.  This  Bureau,  made  up 
of  six  labor  leaders,  six  employers,  and  six  representa- 
tives of  bourgeois  governments  has  for  its  object  not 
only  to  study  the  struggle,  but  also  to  steer  this  strug- 
gle along  the  channels  of  peaceful  development  and 
amicable  solution  of  the  conflicts  between  Labor  and 
Capital. 

38.  In  Berne  (February,  1919),  and  in  Amsterdam 
(July,  1919)  the  trade-union  International  was  formally 
restored.  This  International  is  the  continuation  of  the 
nationalistic  policy  on  an  International  scale.  The  new 
International  began  its  work  by  declaring  itself  in 
favor  of  the  International  Labor  Bureau  and  tightly 
connected  its  leaders  with  the  world  imperialism.  Its 
program  is  peaceful  development,  co-operation  of 
classes,  gradual  growing  into  socialism,  and  the  deadly 
fear  and  hatred  of  the  revolutionary  movement  of  the 
masses. 

39.  Such  international  treason  of  those  who  for 
many  years  have  been  selling  the  workers  of  their 
countries,  wholesale  and  retail,  was  quite  natural  and 
logical,  but  this  was  in  full  contradiction  with  the 
fundamental  interests  of  the  homeless  proletariat.  We 
see  that  simultaneously  with  the  creation  of  this  inter- 
national bulwark  of  the  bourgeoisie  a  movement  of 
protest  again  the  line  of  war  imperialism  is  growing 
in  all  directions  and  in  all  countries.  This  protest, 
rendered  more  acute  by  the  growing  socialist  struggle, 
had  not  at  first  its  own  international  central  organiza- 

35 


tion.  Such  a  center  was  created  at  the  initiative  of  the 
All-Russian  Central  Council  of  Trade  Unions  in  July, 
1920,  represented  by  the  International  Trade  Union 
Council.  The  birth  of  this  center  for  revolutionary 
trade  unionism  is  the  starting  point  for  an  implacable 
war  within  the  bounds  of  the  trade  union  movement  of 
the  world  carried  under  the  slogan:  "Moscow  or 
Amsterdam."  Cleavage  within  the  old  organizations  is 
proceeding  at  a  rapid  rate  in  proportion  to  the  economic 
crisis  growing  more  intense  and  the  prospects  for 
peaceful  development  growing  more  hopeless  for  the 
proletariat. 

40.  The  very  fact  of  the  appearance  of  the  Red 
Trade  Union  International  gave  a  tremendous  impetus 
to  the  ceaseless  growth  of  the  number  of  those  who 
side  with  the  Red  International.     This  fact,  and  the 

<formation  of  various  groups  in  the  trade  union  move- 
ment of  the  world  on  one  side,  and  the  constant  decay 
of  the  Amsterdam  combine  on  the  other  hand,  puts 
before  the  revolutionary  trade  unions  of  all  countries 
the  question  of  the  future  methods  of  organization  of 
their  own  forces,  as  well  as  of  the  methods  to  be  used 
in  attacking  international  capital  and  the  yellow  leaders 
who  are  at  the  head  of  the  Amsterdam  Trade  Union 
Combine. 

VII.    Methods  of  Struggle. 

41.  The  Revolutionary  Unions  will  be  able  to  defeat 
the  old  leaders  only  when  the  revolutionary  and  the 
most  class-conscious  elements  will  not  consent  to  detach 
themselves  for  a  moment  from  the  masses  and  their 
daily  needs  and  hopes.  The  work  must  be  carried  on 
the  battle  ground  of  the  conflicts  by  which  the  masses 
are  deeply  stirred.  The  contemptuous  and  haughty 
attitude  towards  the  daily  struggle  for  the  material 
interests  of  the  union  members  will  detach  the  van- 
guard from  the  masses  and  create  a  gulf  between  them 
and  the  compact  columns  of  the  proletarian  army. 
Therefore  the  swift  response  to  the  daily  struggle  and 
ability  to  utilize  it  from  the  standpoint  of  our  final 
revolutionary  aim  is,  in  conjunction  with  the  general 
trade  union  struggle  for  the  proletarian  dictatorship, 
the  most  important  question  of  union  tactics. 

42.  The  basis  for  enlarging  our  influence  must  lie 
within  the  economic  struggle.     Questions  of  wages, 

36 


of  securing  relief  for  the  war  victims,  social  insurance, 
unemployment,  women  and  child  labor,  sanitary  con- 
ditions in  industrial  establishments,  high  prices,  the 
housing  question,  etc.,  taxation,  mobilization,  colonial 
schemes,  financial  combinations — all  these  must  be 
utilized  as  daily  material  for  organization  and  militant 
socialist  education.  The  adherents  to  the  Red  Trade] 
Union  International  must  in  no  case  remain  out  of  the 
labor  organizations,  must  not  influence  the  workers 
from  the  outside.  Our  task  is  to  work  insistently  and 
systematically  within  the  trade  unions,  giving  thej 
large  labor  masses  practical  lessons  in  the  revolutionary 
spirit,  self-sacrifice  and  communism. 

It  is  necessary  to  conduct  a  systematic  and  stubborn 
propaganda  among  the  workers  in  factories,\  work- 
shops and  concerns  generally,  getting  them  interested 
in  the  Red  International  of  Trade  Unions.  This  samel 
question — for  or  against  Moscow — must  be  raised 
within  the  reformist  unions;  for  this  purpose  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  Red  International  of  Trade  Unions  must 
make  use  of  all  the  union  meetings,  congresses  and 
conferences,  opposing  in  practice  and  struggle,  revo- 
lutionary socialism  against  reformism  and  class-co-j 
operation. 

43.  We  shall  be  able  to  conquer  the  masses,  and 
consequently  the  trade  unions  only  on  condition  that  in 
the  attack  or  resistance  we  will  be  at  the  head  in  the 
first  ranks  of  the  working  class.  This  standpoint  shall 
in  no  case  be  construed  that  a  call  to  action  under  any 
and  all  circumstances  is  advisable.  The  supporters  of 
the  Red  Trade  Union  International  must  not  only  be 
model  revolutionists,  but  also  models  of  sustained 
action  and  coolheadedness.  The  whole  gist  of  success 
consist  in  the  systematic,  efficient  and  stubborn  pre- 
paration of  every  move,  of  every  mass  action ;  rapidity 
and  sureness  of  action  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  a 
detailed  study  of  each  situation  and  its  conditions,  as 
well  as  of  the  organized  strength  of  the  enemy  forces. 
In  class  struggles,  as  well  as  in  battles  at  the  front,  we 
should  not  only  know  how  to  attack,  but  also  how  to 
retreat  in  orderly  and  compact  formation.  Both  in 
offensive  and  defensive  warfare  it  is  always  necessary 
to  have  the  sympathy  of  the  large  proletarian 
masses  and  the  entire  social  and  political  atmosphere  in 
which  the  struggle  takes  place. 

37 


VIII.    Program  of  Action 

44.  Departing  from  the  above  stated  principles,  the 
conditions  of  the  international  trade  union  movement, 
the  economic  crisis,  the  acuteness  of  the  class  struggle, 
the  growing  social  conflicts  and  the  necessity  of  leading 
the  trade  unions  towards  the  social  revolution  and  the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat — the  first  International 
Congress  of  Trade  and  Industrial  Unions  adopted  the 
following  program  of  action : 

45.  The  fundamental  policy  of  the  Trade  Unions  is 
the  direct  action  of  the  revolutionary  masses  and  of 
their  organizations  against  Capital.  All  conquests  of 
the  workers  are  in  direct  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
revolutionary  pressure  they  have  exerted.  By  direct 
action  it  is  understood  every  form  of  immediate  pres- 
sure of  the  workers  upon  the  employers  and  the  State, 
such  as:  boycott,  strikes,  street  uprisings,  demonstra- 
tions, seizure  of  factories,  violent  resistance  against  the 
removal  of  goods  from  factories  and  stores,,  and  other 
revolutionary  activity  leading  the  working  class  to 
the  overthrow  of  Capitalism  and  consolidating  the 
working  class  in  the  Struggle  for  Socialism.  The  task 
of  the  revolutionary  class-conscious  Trade  Unions  con- 
sists in  transforming  all  the  expressions  of  struggle 
into  an  instrument  for  the  social  revolution  of  the 
working  class  and  its  militant  training  for  the  social 
revo^tion  and  the  establishment  of  the  dictatorship  of 
the  proletariat. 

46.  The  last  years  of  the  struggle  have  shown  with 
a  peculiar  vividness  the  inability  for  strictly  trade 
union  organizations,,  to  meet  the  situation.  The  fact 
that  the  workers  in  one  concern  belong  to  different 
craft  unions  weakens  their  efficiency  in  the  struggle. 
It  is  necessary — and  this  should  be  the  starting  point 
of  an  implacable  struggle  to  pass  from  a  strictly  trade 
/  union  organization  to  an  organization  along  the  indus- 
trial lines.  "All  the  workers  emploved  in  one  concern 
must  belong  to  the  same  union — this  is  the  militant 
motto  regarding  the  structure  of  the  organization.  The 
fusion  of  rented  unions  into  one  union  should  be 
effected  in  a  revolutionary  way,  putting  this  question 
directly  before  the  members  of  the  union  in  the  fac- 

38 


tories  and  industries,  as  well  as  before  district,  regional 
bodies  and  national  conventions. 

47.  Each  factory  and  each  shop  should  become  a 
citadel  of  the  revolution.  Old  forms  of  communication 
between  rank  and  file  members  and  the  union  itself 
such  as  money  collectors.,  representatives,  proxies  and 
others  are  insufficient ;  it  is  necessary  to  strive  towards 
the  building  up  of  the  union  on  the  basis  of  shop-com- 
mittees. This  committee  must  be  elected  by  the  work- 
ers engaged  in  the  given  factory,  independently  of 
the  union  they  belong  to  and  the  political  creed  they 
profess.  The  task  imposed  upon  the  supporters  of  the 
Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  is  to  draw  all  the  ^ 
workers  of  a  given  concern  into  the  election  of  their 
representative  body.  The  attempt  to  elect  the  shop 
committees  exclusively  among  adherents  of  the  same 
party,  casting  aside  the  non-party  rank  and  file  workers, 
should  be  severely  condemned.     This  would  be  only 

a  nucleus  and  not  a  factory  committee.  The  revolution- 
ary workers  should  influence,  through  these  nuclei, 
Commitees  of  action  and  through  their  rank  and  file 
members,  the  general  meetings  and  the  elected  Shop- 
Committee. 

48.  The  first  question  to  be  put  before  the  workers 
in  the  shop  committee — is  the  maintenance  of  the 
workers  discharged  on  account  of  unemployment,  at 
the  expense  of  the  bosses  of  the  given  branch  of  in- 
dustry. Workers  should  not  be  permitted  to  be  thrown 
out  on  the  streets  without  the  employers  being  in  the 
least  concerned  with  the  further  existence  of  the  dis- 
charged workers.  The  owner  must  be  compelled  to  pay 
full  wages  to  the  unemployed.  This  should  be  put 
before  the  unemployed,  and  especially  to  the  workers 
engaged  in  the  factories  explaining  to  them  at  the 
same  time  that  the  problem  of  unemployment  is  not  to 
be  solved  within  the  capitalist  regime,  and  that  the 
only  way  to  abolish  unemployment  is  the  social  revolu- 
tion and  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat. 

49.  The  closing  down  of  concerns  and  shortening  of 
the  working  hours  are  the  most  efficient  means  with 
the  help  of  which  the  bougeoisie  compels  the  workers 
to  accept  lower  wages,  longer  hours,  and  the  abolition 
of  collective  bargaining.  Lockouts  take  a  more  and 
more  definite  form  of  direct  action  on  the  part  of  the 
employers  against  the  organized  workers.    Therefore 

39 


the  trade  unions  must  carry  on  a  fight  against  the 
closing  down  of  factories  and  for  the  right  of  the  work- 
ers to  investigate  the  causes  of  such  shutting  down. 
For  this  purpose  special  committees  should  be  organ- 
ized with  regard  to  the  control  of  fuel,  raw  material  and 
orders,  for  the  purpose  of  verifying  the  available 
amount  of  raw  material,  necessary  for  production,  as 
well  as  the  financial  resources  of  the  concerns  in  the 
banks.  Especially  elected  controlling  commissions  must 
investigate  in  the  most  careful  manner  the  financial 
correlation  existing  between  the  given  factory  and 
other  factories  for  which  purpose  it  is  necessary  to 
place  before  the  workers  as  the  timely  practical  prob- 
lem, the  putting  of  an  end  to  the  secrecy  of  business 
transactions. 

50.  One  of  the  ways  of  battling  against  the  closing 
of  concerns  for  the  purpose  of  the  reduction  of  wages 
and  lowering  of  the  standard  of  life,  should  be  the 
taking  over  of  the  factories  and  mills  by  the  workers 
and  the  proceeding  with  production  by  themselves  de- 
spite the  owners  will. 

Owing  to  the  lack  of  goods,  it  is  highly  important  that 
production  should  continue  and  the  workers  should 
therefore  oppose  the  premeditated  closing  down  of  fac- 
tories and  mills.  In  connection  with  local  conditions 
and  the  condition  of  production,  the  political  situation, 
the  tension  of  the  class  struggle — the  seizure  of  the 
enterprises  may  and  should  be  followed  by  other  meth- 
ods of  pressure  upon  capital.  On  taking  hold  of  the 
concern  the  management  of  the  same  should  be  given 
to  shop  committee  representatives  and  the  union  dele- 
gates specially  appointed  for  the  purpose. 

51.  The  economic  struggle  should  follow  the  slogan 
of  "increase  in  wages,  the  improvement  of  labor  con- 
ditions and  the  defense  of  the  fundamental  interests 
for  the  workers."  The  exhaustion  of  the  working  class 
during  the  period  of  the  war  must  be  compensated  by 
an  increase  in  wages  and  the  improvement  of  the  labor 
conditions.  The  reference  of  capitalists  to  foreign  com- 
petition should  by  no  means  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion: the  revolutionary  trade  unions  are  bound  to  ap- 
proach the  question  of  wages  and  labor  conditions  not 
from  the  point  of  view  of  competition  between  rapacious 
capitalists  of  different  nations,  but  solely  from  that  of 
the  preservation  and  the  defense  of  the  working  power. 

40 


52.  The  employers  are  making  use  of  any  means  in 
their  power  to  bring  about  a  split  in  the  ranks  of  the 
labor  movement.  They  have  fully  made  use  of  women's 
labor  during  the  war  and  continue  to  use  this  cheap 
labor  power  for  the  purpose  of  cutting  down  men's 
wages.  Instead  of  fighting  the  employers,  the  workers 
insist,  in  a  number  of  countries,  upon  the  removing  of 
women  from  industry  and  expelling  them  from  the 
unions.  This  policy  should  be  met  with  decided  resist- 
ance from  the  revolutionary  unions,  which  must  fight 
for  equality  of  labor  conditions  for  both  sexes  and  for 
equal  pay  under  similar  conditions  of  work. 

53.  When  the  tactics  of  wage  reduction  are  resorted 
to  by  the  capitalist  class  during  an  economic  crisis,  the 
problem  of  the  revolutionary  trade  unions  consists  in 
defeating  wage  reduction  in  capitalist  industries,  in 
order  not  to  be  defeated  piecemeal.  The  workers 
engaged  in  the  basic  industries  such  as  mining,  railroad, 
gas  concerns  and  others,  should  make  their  struggle 
simultaneously,  in  order  that  the  struggle  against  the 
onslaughts  of  capital  should  touch  the  very  nerve  of 
the  economic  organism. 

It  is  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  every  means  of 
resistance,  from  the  intermittent  strike  up  to  a  general 
strike  embracing  the  key  industries  on  a  national  scale. 
Such  efficiently  appropriated  actions  might  become  a 
strong  weapon  against  the  reactionary  bourgeoisie  of 
all  countries.  The  trade  unions  must  attentively  follow 
the  world  situation  selecting  the  most  favorable  oppor- 
tunity for  their  economic  attack,  without  forgetting  for 
a  single  moment  that  any  action  on  an  international 
scale  can  only  be  possible  by  the  creation  of  true  revo- 
lutionary class-conscious  international  trade  unions 
having  nothing  in  common  with  the  Amsterdam  Inter- 
tional. 

54.  The  belief  in  the  sanctity  of  collective  bargain- 
ing propagated  by  the  opportunists  of  all  countries 
must  be  met  with  a  resolute  and  decided  resistance  on 
the  part  of  the  revolutionary  trade  union  movement. 
Collective  bargaining  is  nothing  more  than  an 
armistice.  The  owner  always  violates  these  collective 
contracts  whenever  the  slightest  opportunity  presents 
itself.  The  respect  toward  collective  bargains  only 
proves  that  bourgeoisie  conceptions  are  deeply  rooted  in 
the  minds  of  the  leaders  of  the  working  class..  The 

41 


revolutionary  trade  unions  without,  as  a  rule,  reject- 
ing collective  bargains  must  realize  their  relative  value 
and  clearly  define  methods  which  will  abolish  these 
contracts  when  it  proves  to  be  profitable  to  the  work- 
ing class. 

Therefore,  every  large  strike  should  not  only  be  well 
prepared  but,  simultaneously  with  its  declaration, 
special  forces  should  be  organized  to  prevent  scabbing 
and  to  counteract  provocative  moves  on  the  part  of 
white-guard  organizations,  encouraged  by  the  bour- 
geoisie and  the  government.  The  Facisti  in  Italy,  the 
Technical  Aid  in  Germany,  the  civil  white  guard  organ- 
izations consisting  of  ex-commissioned  and  non-com- 
missioned officers  in  France  and  in  England — all  these, 
identical  their  aims  though  different  in  form  of  organ- 
ization, pursue  the  policy  of  disorganizing  and  fore- 
stalling all  activities  of  the  workers,  with  the  purpose 
not  only  to  replace  the  strikers  by  scabs,  but  to  destroy 
their  organizations  and  to  kill  the  leaders  of  the  labor 
movement.  Under  these  conditions  the  organization  of 
special  strike  militia  and  special  self-defense  detach- 
ments is  a  question  of  life  and  death  to  the  workers. 

56.  These  militant  organizations  should  not  only 
resist  the  attacks  of  the  employers  and  the  strike- 
breaking organizations,  but  take  the  initiative  by  stop- 
ping all  freight  and  goods  on  their  way  to  and  from 
the  factory ;  in  such  cases  the  transport  workers  should 
play  a  specially  prominent  part;  the  transportation  of 
freight  which  is  their  duty  to  stop  can  easily  be  accom- 
plished— by  the  unanimous  support  of  all  the  workers 
of  a  given  locality. 

57.  All  the  economic  warfare  of  the  working  class 
in  the  next  period  should  center  around  the  slogan 
"Control  of  Industry."  This  control  must  be  effected 
without  waiting  until  the  governments  and  the  ruling 
classes  have  started  a  fake  control.  We  must  conduct 
a  stubborn  war  against  all  attempts  on  the  part  of  the 
ruling  classes  and  reformists  to  create  labor  associa- 
tions in  which  labor  and  capital  co-operate,  or  control 
commissions  shared  jointly  by  workers  and  employers. 
This  control  of  industry  must  be  brought  about  by 
direct  action;  only  then  will  this  control  give  definite 
results.  The  revolutionary  trade  unions  must  come  out 
with  determination  against  the  tricks  and  fraudulent 
schemes  paraded  as  "socialization'*  by  the  leaders  of 

42 


the  old  trade  unions  and  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
ruling  classes.  All  the  talk  on  the  part  of  these  gen- 
tlemen about  peaceful  nationalization  have  for  their 
sole  object  to  sidetrack  the  workers  from  revolution- 
ary work  for  the  social  revolution. 

58.  To  divert  the  attention  of  the  workers  from 
their  immediate  revolutionary  task  and  to  awaken  in 
them  petty  bourgeois  aspirations,  the  capitalists  and 
reformists  are  bringing  forward  the  idea  of  profit 
sharing,  i.  e.,  to  return  to  the  workers  a  really  insig- 
nificant part  of  the  surplus  value  produced  by  them. 
This  plan  of  corrupting  the  workers  should  be  met  with 
severe  and  merciless  criticism.  Not  "profit-sharing," 
but  "to  do  away  with  capitalist  profit" — this  is  the 
slogan  of  the  revolutionary  trade  unions. 

59.  In  order  to  paralyze  and  nmlify  the  fighting 
force  of  the  working  class,  the  bourgeois  governments 
militarize,  under  pretext  of  defending  the  vital  inter- 
ests of  protecting  the  national  welfare,  separate  con- 
cerns and  even  whole  branches  of  industry.  Under 
the  cover  of  preventing,  as  far  as  possible,  economic 
crisis,  they  introduced,  in  the  interests  of  capital,  ob- 
ligatory courts  of  arbitration  and  conflict  commissions. 
Still  in  the  interests  of  capital,  some  countries  intro- 
duced the  direct  tax  on  earnings  with  a  view  of  throw- 
ing the  weight  of  the  war  wholly  on  the  shoulders  of 
the  working  class,  the  tax-collectors  being  the  employ- 
ers themselves.  It  is  incumbent  upon  the  trade  unions 
to  lead  against  these  state  measures,  exclusively  serv- 
ing the  interests  of  the  capitalist  class,  a  ruthless  and 
merciless  battle. 

60.  While  conducting  the  fight  for  the  improvement 
of  the  conditions  of  labor,  raising  the  standard  of  life 
of  the  masses,  and  establishing  workers'  control  over 
industry,  we  should  always  keep  in  mind  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  solve  all  these  problems  within  the  frame 
of  the  capitalist  system.  For  this  reason  the  revolu- 
tionary trade  unions,  while  gradually  forcing  conces- 
sions from  the  ruling  classes,  compelling  them  to  enact 
social  legislation,  should  put  before  the  working  masses 
a  clear-cut  idea,  that  only  the  overthrow  of  capitalism 
and  the  establishment  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  pro- 
letariat can  solve  the  social  question.  For  this  reason 
not  a  single  case  of  mass  action,  not  a  single  small 
conflict  should  pass,  from  this  point  of  view,  without 

43 


leaving  a  deep  mark.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  revolutionary 
trade  unions  to  explain  these  conflicts  to  the  workers, 
leading  the  rank  and  file  always  toward  the  idea  of  the 
necessity  and  the  inevitability  of  the  social  revolution 
and  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat. 

VI.    Resolutions  on  Workers'  Control 

1.     The  analysis  of  modern  economic  conditions  irre- 
futably proves,  that  the  productive  forces  of  society  are 
in  sharp  and  insolvable  contradiction  with  the  prevail- 
ing industrial  and  ownership  relations.     Pending  the 
world  war  this  contradiction  was  evident  only  to  the 
most  advanced  proletarian  elements.     However,  the 
acuteness  of  the  post-war  world  crisis,  equally  affecting 
the  victorious,  the  vanquished  and  the  neutral  coun- 
tries brought  home  this  lesson  to  the  large  proletarian 
masses.    The  endless  war,  despite  the  treaty  of  Ver- 
sailles; the  general  and  cronic  crisis,  despite  the  ab- 
solute necessity  of  restoring  industry,  have  put  society 
as  a  whole,  and  particularly  the  proletariat  of  the  whole 
world,  face  to  face  with  the  burning  question  of  its 
further  existence.    With  the  first  attempt  to  solve  this 
question  it  becomes  absolutely  clear:  that  the  above 
mentioned  contradictions  have  now  reached  such  a  de- 
gree, that  the  bourgeoisie  having  up  to  the  present 
directed  industry  as  a  class,  now  becomes  its  disor- 
ganizer;  i.  e.,  not  only  does  not  the  bourgeoisie  assist 
any  more  its  development,  but  on  the  contrary  puts 
obstacles  in  its  way,  and   becomes  a  fetter  on  pro- 
duction. 

The  working  class  is  the  first  to  feel  very  keenly 
the  unbearable  burden  of  this  contradiction,  because  it 
is  more  than  any  other  class  tied  up  with  production  in 
great  industrial  centers,  shops  and  factories;  and  also 
because  the  above  stated  contradiction  leads  to  whole- 
sale slaughter  of  the  workers  on  the  battlefields,  or  to 
mass  starvation  in  the  periods  of  unemployment. 

This  is  why  the  necessity  to  define  the  role  of  the 
bourgeoisie  in  the  present  organization  of  industry,  and 
to  determine  how  it  fulfills  its  task;  and  as  a  result 
of  this,  the  reorganization  of  the  whole  system  of  pro- 
duction^, by  the  workers  themselves  in  their  own  inter- 
ests, first  arises  in  the  minds  of  the  working  class. 
Such  a  necessity,  which  really  means  a  prologue  to 

44 


the  unifying  of  the  contradictions  of  the  capitalist 
system  by  violent  action,  i.  e.,  social  revolution,  takes 
in  fact  the  form  of  workers'  control  over  production. 

2.  This  primitive  stage  of  workers  control  reveals 
itself  in  sporadic  attempts  of  the  workers  of  each  con- 
cern to  supervise  the  work,  the  supply,  and  condition 
of  the  machinery  of  production,  to  determine  whether 
the  closing  of  the  factory,  or  the  curtailing  of  produc- 
tion are  really  based  upon  necessity  and  are  not  a  result 
of  mischievous  intention  of  the  owner.  But  very  soon 
the  workers  get  convinced,  that  supervision  and  control 
alone  are  not  sufficient  to  prevent  the  capitalist  from 
disorganizing  the  work  in  the  factories.  The  system  of 
artificially  curtailing  production  or  completely  closing 
their  factories,  adopted  by  the  capitalists  of  different 
countries,  shows  very  well  the  limitations  of  this  form 
of  control.  Equally  insufficient  are  the  spasmodic 
attempts  made  by  workers  of  some  concerns  to  continue 
production  at  all  costs,  even  against  the  will  of  the 
factory  owner.  In  such  casual  attempts,  as  in  Russia 
after  the  March  revolution,  or  not  very  long  ago  in 
Italy,  Germany,  England  and  other  countries,  the  basic 
feature  of  the  new  position  of  the  working  class  in 
industry  manifests  itself.  \  From  the  position  of  a 
passive  and  exploited  force,  which  till  now  was  con- 
sidered as  a  machine  or  its  appendage,  the  working 
class  rises  to  the  position  of  pioneer  of  the  idea  of 
organization  of  production,  to  the  position  of  the  direct 
inheritor  of  the  bourgeoisie,  which  now,  on  account 
of  its  class  interests,  has  become  the  disorganizer  of 
production. 

3.  To  the  old  type  trade  unions,  whose  activity 
was  limited  to  the  fight  for  but  slight  improvments 
under  the  existing  capitalist  system,  such  a  change 
in  the  minds  of  the  working  masses  causes  an  indis- 
putable blow.  Tied  together  through  its  bureaucracy 
with  the  bourgeois  apparatus,  and  entirely  dependent 
upon  it,  the  old  trade  unions  are  powerless  to  grasp 
the  new  problem  of  production  put  before  the  working 
class,  or  to  find  a  practical  solution  for  it.  This  is  why 
with  particular  force  and  rapidity  new  organizations 
are  now  growing  up  which,  still  using  the  weapon  of 
the  old  trade  unions — the  strike — for  revolutionary 
purposes,  already  strive  to  take  over  industry.  The 
activity  of  the  shop  committees  is  now  not  limited  only 

45 


to  the  strike,  but  is  mainly  expressed  in  taking  over 
some  functions  of  the  factory  owner,  especially  in  the 
branches  of  supplying  the  factory  with  raw  materials, 
fuel  and  later  with  financial  means,  or  the  confiscation 
of  factories  sabotaged  or  left  by  the  owners.  This  is 
the  reason  why  at  this  state  of  the  workers  central 
the  bourgeoisie  and  its  apologists — the  leaders  of  the 
old  trade  unions  make  the  fiercest  attempt  to  oppose 
to  the  revolutionary  workers'  control,  the  so-called 
"industrial  democracy,"  mixed  commissions  of  factory 
owners  and  workers,  profit  sharing  schemes  and  other 
"democratic"  tricks  based  on  the  theory  of  "equal" 
rights  between  labor  and  capital  on  condition  of  leav- 
ing the  means  of  production  in  the  private  ownership 
of  the  bourgeoisie.  This  ideal  of  "equality''  carefully 
cultivated  by  the  English  trade  unions,  which  received 
its  final  expression  at  the  10th  Congress  of  trade 
unions  in  Germany  (1919)  and  which  still  dominates 
the  French  General  Confederation  of  Labor,  is  in  prac- 
tice but  an  attempt  to  fool  the  working  class  through 
the  distortion  of  the  meaning  of  revolutionary  workers' 
control;  to  turn  it  aside  from  the  immediate  revolu- 
tionary problems  to  the  entirely  outlived  bourgeois 
ideas  of  the  yellow  International  of  trade  unions. 

4.  Of  the  same  significance  are  the  attempts  of  the 
yellow  leaders  of  trade  unions  to  oppose  "government 
ownership,"  to  the  revolutionary  workers'  control. 
The  bourgeoisie  is  supporting  them,  because  it  cleverly 
uses  the  principle  of  the  pseudo-socialization  in  its 
own  class  interests.  They  willingly  obscure  the  fact 
that  government  ownership  doesn't  at  all  mean 
national  ownership,  but  only  the  transition  of  produc- 
tion from  private  management  of  a  group  of  class 
representatives  to  the  management  by  the  entire  class. 
The  theory  of  state  control  consists  in  an  administra- 
tion composed  of  elected  representatives  either  of  the 
government  and  the  workers  or  of  the  owners,  the 
government,  and  the  workers.  The  representatives  of 
the  government  were  always  considered  as  represent- 
ing the  entire  population,  and  workers  as  representa- 
tives of  a  class.  Here  the  falsity  of  the  democratic 
principle  of  control  reveals  itself  as  utterly  unacceptable 
to  the  revolutionary  workers  because  their  idea  of 
workers'  control  actually  means  the  negation  of 
modern  government,  which  is  but  a  weapon  of  the 

46 


bourgeoisie,  and  so  they  reject  the  democratic  principle 
and  advocate  instead  the  principle  of  the  workers' 
state  expressing  the  real  needs  of  the  toilers.  The 
workers'  control  is  antagonistic  to  bourgeois  nation- 
alization of  industry  or  state  ownership.  Any  attempt 
in  favor  of  combining  state  ownership  with  workers' 
control,  while  actually  conserving  the  power  of  admin- 
istration of  industry  in  the  hands  of  the  bourgeoisie, 
will  result  only  in  putting  the  responsibility  on  the 
working  class.  On  the  other  hand,  such  attempts  to 
reconcile  the  irreconcilable  may  bring  about  the  disin- 
tegration of  the  new  revolutionary  nucleus  of  the  trade 
union  movement  in  the  shops  which  is  very  dangerous 
on  account  of  the  tendencies  of  the  union  bureaucracy 
to  profit  by  their  weakness  and  lack  of  co-ordination 
in  their  activity  and  subject  them  to  their  disintegrat- 
ing influence. 

5.  Not  less  dangerous  is  the  pseudo-revolutionary 
opinion,  widely  spread  among  the  workers  of  different 
countries,  that  the  proletariat  can  reach  positive 
results  of  control  even  before  the  overthrow  of  the 
capitalist  state.  The  sad  experience  of  the  Italian 
wprkers'  control,  betrayed  by  the  treacherous  leaders 
of  the  proletariat,  has.  emphatically  proved  the  sheer 
nonsense  of  this  opinion,  and  revolutionary  workers 
in  different  countries  must  avoid  the  repetition  of  such 
experiments.  It  is  particularly  important  to  keep  in 
view  in  this  connection  that  the  application  of  workers 
control  in  its  fullest  expression  is  impossible  unless  it 
include  the  financial  function  as  well  as  technical  super- 
vision. Only  the  full  application  of  financial  control 
reveals  to  the  workers  the  fundamental  basis  of  the 
capitalist  system.  In  the  process  of  financial  control 
the  workers  learn  in  practice  the  dependence  of  their 
factory  upon  the  banks  and  national  and  international 
financial  trusts.  The  disclosure  of  the  commercial, 
industrial,  and  particularly  financial  secrets  gives  the 
proletariat  an  exact  picture  of  the  prime  source  of 
the  overwhelming  sabotage  on  the  part  of  the  bour- 
geoisie. It  reveals  the  main  lever  of  the  system  of 
lockouts,  curtailing  of  production  by  establishing  short 
time  work  and   other  methods   artificially   bringing 

47 


about    unemployment,    cutting   wages,    disruption    of 
labor  organizations,  etc. 

6.  The  struggle  for  financial  control  leads  the  work- 
ing class  to  the  immediate  and  decisive  clash  with  the 
bourgeoisie  whose  political  power  is  to  a  certain  extent 
based  on  financial  power.  At  this  stage,  control  inevit- 
ably takes  an  evident  political  aspect  and  requires 
political  leadership.  Meanwhile  the  increasingly  fre- 
quent cases  of  seizure  of  factories,  and  at  the  same 
time  impossibility  of  managing  them  without  dispos- 
ing of  the  financial  apparatus,  clearly  puts  before  the 
workers  the  timely  problem  of  getting  hold  of  the 
financial  system  and,  through  it,  of  the  whole  industry. 
At  this  stage  of  workers*  control  the  contradiction 
stated  in  the  first  chapter  resolves  itiself  into  the 
struggle  for  power  between  the  proletariat  and  the 
bourgeoisie,  i.  e.,  in  the  social  revolution.  In  the 
process  of  this  struggle,  the  duration  of  which  is 
determined  by  the  level  of  organization  and  culture 
of  the  bourgeoisie  in  each  country,  there  is  no  more 
question  of  controlling  the  factory  owner  in  order  to 
paralyze  his  "evil  intentions/'  to  break  his  sabotaging 
activities,  or  to  continue  production,  at  all  costs,  etc., 
but  the  question  before  the  proletariat  now  is  to  take 
away  the  industry  from  the  capitalists,  to  take  over 
as  a  class  in  its  own  hands  and  under  its  own  responsi- 
bility the  management  of  the  industrial  resources  of 
the  country.  At  this  movement  the  workers'  control 
develops  into  a  militant  attempt  of  the  working  class 
to  direct  the  organization  of  production,  in  factories, 
shops,  mines  and  railroads  not  only  in  its  own  interest, 
or  some  separate  groups  of  the  working  class,  but  for 
the  benefit  of  the  whole  proletariat  of  a  given  country. 

7.  The  victory  of  the  proletariat  is  inevitable 
because  the  bourgeoisie  can  not  longer  hold  the  indus- 
try. This  brings  the  proletariat  to  the  difficult  task  of 
state  reconstruction  amid  very  adverse  conditions, 
primarily  because  the  preliminary  stages  of  workers, 
control  were  necessarily  destructive  of  the  industrial 
machinery.  To  hold  power  over  production  in  such 
a  situation  on  the  morrow  after  the  revolution  becomes 
a  particularly  difficult  task.  The  sabotage  of  the  bour- 
geoisie and  its  obsequious  flatterers,  concealed  until 
now,  becomes  open  and  systematic.  The  factories, 
shops,  government  institutions,  .schools,  and  uniyers- 

48 


ities  are  left  without  directing  staffs.  Not  only  must 
the  working  class  physically  defend  the  revolution, 
but  also  give  its  best  workers  to  the  task  of  adminis- 
tration. In  such  a  moment  the  role  of  mass  organiza- 
tions, including  not  only  the  advance  guard  of  the 
proletariat  (the  communist  party),  but  the  large  sec- 
tions of  neutrals,  assumes  a  very  important  and  almost 
decisive  significance.  But  the  economic  organizations 
of  the  proletariat  could  find  their  way  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  working  class  only  through  the  creation  of 
nuclei  in  each  factory  and  in  each  workship.  This  is 
why  the  question  of  relationship  between  the  trade 
unions  and  shop  committees  is  now  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance. Experience  has  shown  that  shop  committees 
are  of  great  value,  especially  where  the  trade  unions 
are  either  weak  or  captured  by  opportunistic  leadership. 
But  the  work  of  shop  committees  must  not  be  localized, 
otherwise  it  will  easily  be  paralyzed  or  sidetracked  by 
the  bourgeoisie.  The  advance  guard  of  the  working 
class  must  direct  the  work  of  shop*  committees  in 
nation-wide  channels.  This  shows  that  the  machinery 
of  the  trade  union  centers  must  be  employed  to  get 
control  of  the  shop  committees  and  turn  them  into  a 
mighty  weapon  of  mass  control  and  ownership  of 
production. 

8.  But  the  unions  can  assume  this  work  only  under 
two  conditions:  (1)  when  their  structure  changes  from 
craft  lines  to  industrial,  permitting  to  unite  all  the 
workers  and  employees  of  any  branch  of  industry 
around  a  definite  problem  of  production;  (2)  when,  in 
opposition  to  the  yellow  counter-revolution  trade-union 
bureaucracy  in  each  industry,  there  is  created  a  firm 
and  determined  revolutionary  nucleus  to  counteract  the 
corrupting  policies  of  the  bureaucracy,  and  to  retain 
the  organized  masses  in  the  factories  on  the  path  of 
revolutionary  struggle  for  control  over  production  and 
permanent  management  of  industry. 

In  their  vigorous  fight  against  Amsterdam,  attempt- 
ing to  turn  the  revolutionary  aspirations  of  the  pro- 
letariat in  the  channel  of  futile  and  fruitless  control 
within  the  limits  and  interests  of  the  capitalist  sys- 
tem, the  Red  unions  must  pay  special  attention  to  the 
practice  of  workers'  control,  which  is  the  best  prelimi- 
nary school  for  the  proletariat  striving  to  take  power 
in  its  own  hands.    The  logical  conclusion  of  it  is  that 

49 


preliminary  to  the  social  revolution  the  slogan  of 
workers'  control  must  be  put  on  the  order  of  business 
of  every  gathering  of  workers,  not  only  with  the  object 
of  revolutionizing  them,  but  to  give  them  the  political 
and  economic  education  necessary  for  the  immediate 
future.  Upon  this  preparation  depends  the  duration  of 
the  political  proletarian  rule  after  the  social  revolution, 
because  the  social  revolution  and  the  upholding  of  the 
proletarian  power  are  determined  by  the  preparation 
and  the  ability  of  the  proletariat  to  conquer  and  submit 
to  its  will  the  mechanism  of  production,  i.  e.,  whether 
it  will  be  able  to  solve  not  only  politically  but  also 
economically  the  basic  contradiction  mentioned  in  the 
first  chapter.  This  task  can  easily  be  achieved  by  a 
suitable  preparation,  primarily  because  the  worker 
gradually  learns  to  manage  the  factory ;  then  he  clearly 
sees  the  correlation  between  different  branches  of 
industry  and  learns  to  supervise  them  on  a  large 
national  scale.  Thus,  after  the  social  revolution,  when 
he  inevitably  has  to  proceed  with  the  nationalization  of 
the  whole  financial  system,  industrial  transport  and 
important  sources  of  raw  material,  etc.,  the  proletarian 
government  will  have  enough  workers  capable  not  only 
of  fighting  for  the  social  revolution,  but  building  on 
the  inherited  ground  a  new  socialist  commonwealth, 
new  organs  of  distribution  and  management  of 
industry. 

At  this  stage  the  workers'  control  assumes  the  form 
of  participation  of  the  trade  unions  in  the  shaping  of 
new  economic  organs  and  management  of  production 
through  the  latter,  i.  e.,  it  transforms  itself  into  one 
of  the  organs  of  economic  reconstruction  and  control 
of  the  working  class  through  the  Soviets  and  the 
economic  organs. 

General  Conclusions 

1.  The  workers'  control  is  the  necessary  school  in 
the  work  of  preparation  of  the  large  masses  for  the 
proletarian  revolution. 

2.  Workers'  control  must  be  the  war  cry  for  the 
workers  of  every  capitalist  country,  and  must  be  util- 
ized as  a  weapon  to  disclose  the  financial  and  com- 
mercial secrets. 

3.  Workers'  control  must  be  largely  used  for  the 
reconstruction  of  the  outlived  trade  unions  on  the  basis 

50 


of  industries,  the  former  becoming  harmful  for  the 
workers'  revolutionary  movement. 

5.  Workers'  control  is  distinct  from  bourgeois 
schemes  of  "mixed  committees"  nationalization,  etc., 
and  to  the  dictatorship  of  the  bourgeoisie  it  opposes 
the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat. 

6.  When  establishing  any  form  of  workers'  control 
or  seizure  of  concerns  great  attention  must  be  given 
to  the  necessity  of  attracting  the  most  backward  pro- 
letarian masses  to  the  discussion  of  the  issues  at  stake. 
At  the  same  time  a  careful  selection  of  the  more  capable 
workers  must  be  made,  during  the  process  of  workers' 
control  with  the  view  of  preparing  them  for  the  leading 
position  in  the  task  of  organizing  industry. 

7.  For  the  efficient  functioning  of  the  workers'  con- 
trol in  each  locality,  it  is  necessary  that  the  trade 
unions  direct  the  work  of  the  factory  committees, 
while  the  trade  unions  must  coordinate  and  combine 
the  work  of  the  local  control  committees  of  the  same 
industry  in  such  a  manner  as  to  avoid  any  attempt  to 
create  "factory  patriotism"  on  the  ground  of  local- 
ized control. 

8.  For  the  guidance  of  the  work  of  the  factory 
committees  the  trade  unions  must  from  the  outset 
issue  special  instructions,  discussing  the  questions  of 
workers'  control,  carry  on  a  propaganda  in  the  daily 
press  and  in  factories  not  only  by  explaining  the  neces- 
sity of  workers'  control,  but  also  giving  detailed  re- 
ports of  the  results  of  workers'  control  in  different 
concerns,  call  for  that  purpose  joint  meetings,  con- 
ferences, etc. 

9.  With  a  view  of  carrying  out  these  aims  in 
unions  which  do  not  accept  the  principles  of  the  Red 
International  of  Trade  Unions,  it  is  necessary  to 
organize  strong  revolutionary  nuclei  which  will  lay 
special  stress  on  the  reconstruction  of  the  unions  on 
an  industrial  basis  and  will '  keep  the  revolutionary 
character  of  the  struggle  for  workers'  control. 


51 


VII.     Resolution  on  Shop  Committees 

1.  For  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  above  stated 
tasks  (resolution  on  workers'  control),  the  Shop  Com- 
mittees must  be  built  along  determined  lines.  A  ques- 
tion arises  whether  the  Shop  Committees  ought  to  be 
organized  within  or  outside  the  labor  unions.  In  Ger- 
many and  England  wide  labor  circles  were  of  the  opin- 
ion that  Shop  Committees  must  be  organized  outside 
of  the  unions,  that  they  shall  take  over  the  craft 
unions  and  entirely  dismiss  them.  This  opinion  holds 
that  the  form  of  craft  organization  is  inadaptable  to 
the  needs  of  the  struggle,  but  should  they  be  reorgan- 
ized along  the  industrial  lines  they  might,  together 
with  the  Shop  Committees,  become  able  to  cope  with 
the  problems. 

2.  The  Shop  Committees  cannot  take  the  place  of 
the  trade  unions.  Only  in  the  course  of  the  struggle 
can  they  go  beyond  the  limits  of  the  separate  shops, 
factories  and  unite  on  the  basis  of  separate  industries, 
creating  a  common  machinery  for  carrying  on  the 
struggle. 

Hence  trade  unions  have  already  become  central 
organs  of  the  struggle,  although  they  do  not  embrace 
such  a  great  number  of  workers  as  the  Shop  Commit- 
tees could  do,  representing  free  organizations  acces- 
sible to  all  the  workers  of  a  given  concern.  The  divi- 
sion of  functions  of  the  Shop  Committees  and  trade 
unions  must  result  from  the  historical  development 
of  the  social  revolution.  The  trade  unions  organize 
the  workers  for  an  increase  of  wages  or  shortening  of 
working  hours  on  a  national  and  state-wide  scale.  The 
Shop  Committees,  being  organized  for  the  purpose  of 
controlling  industry,  embracing  the  workers  of  a  given 
concern,  and  their  struggle  will  only  gradually  assume 
a  national  and  state-wide  scale. 

In  so  far  as  the  rank  and  file  of  the  trade  unions 
will  succeed  in  combatting  the  counter-revolutionary 
tendencies  of  their  bureaucracy  and  transform  the 
unions  into  revolutionary  bodies,  the  Shop  Commit- 

52 


tees  will  become  the  nuclei  of  the  trade  unions  in  the 
shops. 

3.  The  organization  of  the  Shop  Committees  by 
separate  industries  and  their  utilization  for  the  imme- 
diate struggle  for  the  working  class  interests  cannot 
but  influence  the  modern  structure  of  the  trade  unions. 
The  activities  of  the  Shop  Committees  shatter  the  old 
forms  of  the  trade  unions  built  on  the  craft  principle 
and  hasten  their  transformation  into  unions  organized 
by  industries. 

4.  By  turning  the  trade  unions  and  Shop  Commit- 
tees into  a  powerful  weapon  for  the  social  revolution, 
the  revolutionary  workers  are  thus  preparing  these 
mass  organizations  for  the  great  task  which  they  will 
have  to  face  after  the  establishment  of  the  dictator- 
ship of  the  proletariat,  the  task  of  becoming  the  bul- 
wark of  the  new  organization  of  the  economic  life  on 
the  basis  of  Socialist  principles. 

Trade  unions  reconstructed  on  the  industrial  basis 
and  supported  by  the  Shop  Committees  will  familiar- 
ize the  workers  with  the  industrial  problems,  will  pre- 
pare the  more  experienced  among  them  for  the  man- 
agement of  the  concerns  and  effect  control  over  the 
technical  experts.  Thus,  under  the  general  direction 
of  the  workers'  government  in  co-operation  with  other 
economic  organizations  of  the  workers,  the  trade 
unions  will  carry  out  the  fundamental  principles  of  a 
Socialist  commonwealth. 

The  concrete  tasks  before  the  Shop  Committees  are 
as  follows: 

1.  To  draw  the  unemployed  into  the1  process  of 
production,  for  the  fulfillment  of  which;  task  it  is 
necessary  (a)  to  clearly  determine  the  potentialities 
of  production,  to  take  into  account  the  available  sup- 
plies of  raw  and  accessory  materials  in  production  and 
take  them  under  control;  (b)  to  shift  the  available 
labor  force  into  such  branches  of  industry  in  which  a 
shortage  of  hands  is  felt;  (c)  to  secure  sufficient  aid 
to  the  unemployed  on  the  owners'  account  until  they 
resume  work;  (d)  to  establish  connections  with  the 
distributive  organizations  in  order  to  get  acquainted 
with  the  exact  necessities  of  the  working  masses  and 
conform  production  to  these  needs. 

2.  The  organization  of  the  distribution  of  fuel  in 
order  to  secure  regular  work  in  the  concerns  and  an 

53 


adequate  standard  of  living  for  the  workers — i.  e.:  to 
organize  a  systematic  supply  of  fuel  for  the  different 
concerns  as  well  as  the  households  of  the  workers. 

3.  The  suspension  of  all  unproductive  work,  espe- 
cially the  manufacturing  of  arms,  ammunition  and 
articles  of  luxury. 

4.  The  establishment  of  control  over  transport  in 
order  to  prevent  overtaxing  transport  by  unproduct- 
ive shipping:  (a)  transport  of  war  materials ;  (b)  ex- 
port of  capital;  (c)  export  of  equipment  of  closed 
concerns;  (d)  export  of  foodstuffs  for  purposes  of 
speculation.  First  of  all,  provision  should  be  made  for 
the  supply  of  food  and  articles  of  mass  consumption: 
raw  material,  fuel  and  accessory  materials  necessary 
in  production;  the  conveyance  of  the  working  popu- 
lation to  the  place  of  work  should  be  likewise  pro- 
vided for. 

5.  The  establishment  of  financial  control  in  order 
to  make  possible  the  valuation  of  capital  and  cash  on 
hand  in  concerns;  of  control  over  banking  and  other 
financial  operations,  and  generally  of  control  over 
banks. 

6.  The  establishment  of  control  over  the  supply 
and  distribution  of  foodstuffs:  by  establishing  com- 
munications between  the  toiling  population  of  the  town 
and  the  country.  Special  attention  should  be  paid  to 
the  organization  of  mutual  exchange  between  town  and 
country  of  agricultural  and  factory  goods. 

7.  The  organization  of  control  and  the  fixing  of 
prices  on  agricultural  and  factory  products  which  the 
toiling  population  is  in  need  of. 

8.  The  establishment  of  control  over  export  and 
import :  (a)  in  the  first  place  preference  must  be  given 
to  the  import  of  commodities  necessary  for  the  work- 
ing mass  and  to  the  maintenance  of  production;  (b) 
the  import  of  luxury  should  be  prohibited;  (c)  the 
export  abroad  of  foodstuffs  and  capital,  as  well  as  ar- 
ticles necessary  for  local  production  should  be  likewise 
prohibited. 


54 


VIII.     Resolutions  on  the  Organization  Question 

(On  the  Report  of  Com.  Losovsky) 

1.     General  Considerations 

1.  The  present  world  situation  puts  before  the 
working  class  new  problems.  The  world  wide  economic 
crisis  involving  a  disastrous  drop  in  wholesale  prices, 
and  a  market  glutted  with  goods  face  to  face  with  an 
actual  famine  for  such  goods;  the  bourgeois  starting 
a  policy  of  aggressive  warfare  against  the  working 
class  by  stubborn  effort  attempting  to  reduce  its  wages 
and  hurl  the  workers  back  to  where  they  stood  scores 
of  years  ago  on  one  side  and  the  masses  getting  more 
and  more  embittered  on  the  other  side,  the  inertia  of 
the  old  trade  unions  with  their  wornout  methods — all 
this  compels  the  revolutionary  trade  unions  to  work 
out  new  programs  and  tactics.  The  decay  of  capitalism 
calls  for  new  methods  of  carrying  the  class  struggle. 
The  trade  unions  must  adopt  a  policy  of  aggressive 
economic  actions  not  only  for  repelling  the  capitalist 
offensive  but  for  taking  the  offensive  itself. 

2.  The  pending  social  battles  and  especially  those 
which  the  working  class  will  have  to  conduct  in  the 
future  will  impose  upon  the  revolutionary  trade  unions 
a  tremendous  amount  of  work  both  in  preparing  the 
social  revolution,  especially  during  the  revolution 
itself  and  after  seizing  the  means  of  production,  trans- 
port and  exchange  and  establishing  the  dictatorship  of 
the  proletariat.  The  unions  will  be  able  to  carry  out 
this  tremendous  work  only  when  they  readjust  their 
ranks  and  day  by  day  prepare  the  unions  in  a  sys- 
tematic and  organized  manner  for  their  future  func- 
tions as  organizers  of  production,  acting  at  the  same 
time  as  the  basis  of  proletarian  rule. 

3.  Under  such  conditions  the  question  of  methods 
and  ways  of  building  up  the  organizations  of  labor  be- 
come especially  important  and  significant.  The  gist 
of  this  question  amounts  to  this-— namely :  to  create  an 
organization  at  once  flexible,  and  mobile,  tightly  welded 
with  the  masses  which  should,  under  all  conditions  of 
the  struggle,  both  in  triumph  and  defeat,  have  an  in- 

55 


disputable  authoritative  sway  over  the  wide  masses. 
The  entire  work  of  organization  should  be  steered  in 
such  a  way  that  the  mass  responds  whenever  the  or- 
ganization calls  upon  it  for  action,  and  what  is  even 
more  important,  that  unsuccessful  action  does  not 
drive  the  masses  into  a  listless,  apathetic  frame  of 
mind  and  make  them  turn  their  backs  to  the  union. 

4.  Pursuing  these  aims  the  union  must  concentrate 
its  attention  primarily  on  the  work  of  making  their 
members  more  class  conscious,  welded  closer  together 
and  more  disciplined.  The  work  of  securing  a  higher 
level  of  class  consciousness  and  closer  unity  of  the 
membership  can  be  successful  only  if  carried  on  in  con- 
nection and  on  the  ground  of  their  daily  battles  under 
the  prevailing  conditions.  The  only  kind  of  organiza- 
tion which  will  really  be  effective  is  the  one  which  will 
closely  unite  the  rank  and  file  with  their  union  and 
will  train  a  staff  of  tireless  and  self-sacrificing  fighters. 
These  fighters  will  adapt  forms  of  organization  to  the 
needs  of  the  social  struggle  and  to  the  extent  of  the 
consolidation  of  the  enemy.  They  will  also  teach  the 
lesson  to  look  upon  their  organization  not  as  an  aim  in 
itself  but  as  a  means  for  realizing  the  aim. 

II.     Unions  Organized  by  Trade  or  Industry 

5.  The  trade  unions  were  originally  intended  sim- 
ply as  organs  for  the  protection  of  the  working  class 
against  capitalist  exploitation,  and  by  the  force  of 
development  of  the  complicated  methods  of  capitalist 
exploitation  had  to  change  their  tactics  and  methods 
of  fight.  The  narrow  limits  of  the  trade  union  groups 
which  had  for  their  aims  mere  "benevolence"  become 
more  and  more  inadequate  in  their  struggle  with  con- 
centrated capitalism. 

The  exigencies  of  mutual  aid  are  replaced  by  a  stren- 
uous economic  struggle,  requiring  the  reconstruction 
of  the  union  from  narrow  craftism  into  industrial 
unionism. 

6.  Notwithstanding  the  severe  rebukes  and  the 
acuteness  of  class  struggle  the  working  class  in  its 
forms  of  organization  is  far  behind  the  employers. 
The  concentration  of  power,  the  centralization  of  lead- 
ership and  uniformity  of  plans  is  systematically  accom- 
plished by  the  capitalists  in  their  organizations  and  by 
their  state  machinery  in  western  Europe  and  America. 
,The  organized  expression  of  the. power  of.the-bouf- 

56 


geois,  regardless  of  the  strong  mutual  competition 
which  exists,  consists  in  its  organizations  formed 
either  by  industies  or  by  branches  of  industry,  owners 
of  metal  works,  metallurgical  mine  owners,  etc. 

The  organizations  of  employers,  in  their  strategical 
attacks  upon  the  workers,  operate  with  the,  entire 
factory,  and  not  with  separate  groups  in  each  respect- 
ive factory.  If  they  do  deal  with  separate  groups  of 
workers,  it  is  with  the  purpose  to  divide  the  workers 
and  antagonize  them. 

7.  At  the  same  time  the  principle  of  craft  unionism 
has  not  been  fully  dismissed.  In  England,  Germany, 
France  and  America,  in  one  industry,  different  craft 
unions  very  often  competing  between  themselves  may 
be  found. 

This  tends  to  weaken  the  struggle  of  the  workers, 
who  instead  of  coming  in  as  a  single  solid  front,  come 
in  small  groups. 

The  chief  problem  of  organization  consists  in  pass- 
ing from  the  system  of  craft  unionism  to  industrial. 
The  slogan  "One  Union  for  One  Industry"  should  be- 
come the  slogan  of  the  militant  revolutionary  unions. 

All  workers  of  a  machine  shop,  regardless  of  their 
occupations  or  qualifications,  beginning  with  a  me- 
chanic and  ending  with  a  laborer,  all  belong  to  the 
union  of  metal  workers. 

All  workers  of  the  textile  factory,  beginning  from 
a  weaver,  mechanic,  labor,  etc.,  all  should  belong  to 
the  unions  of  textile  workers.  By  such  a  system  of 
organization  the  employers  would  be  faced  with  a 
strong,  united  mass  of  workers,  of  all  the  workers  of 
the  same  industry,  instead  of  separate  isolated  groups. 

III.     Shop  Committees 

8.  The  gathering  of  the  revolutionary  forces  in  the 
trade  union  movement  must  proceed  under  the  ban- 
ner of  organization  of  shop  committees.  The  Shop 
Committees  must  be  elected  by  all  the  workers  of  a 
given  concern,  independently  of  their  political  or  re- 
ligious creeds.  The  attempt  to  create  shop  commit- 
tees at  meetings  of  fellow  party  members,  as  prac- 
ticed in  Germany  by  the  General  Workers'  Union,  is 
only  a  caricature  and  discredits  the  very  idea  of  the 
organization  in  the  eyes  of  the  large  working  masses. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  under  the  false  name  of  Shop 

57 


Committees,  the  General  Workers'  Union  established 
its  party  fractional  nucleus:  this,  of  course,  is  within 
the  rights  of  any  organization,  but  there  is  no  need  to 
give  such  high  sounding  names  to  these  nuclei. 

9.  The  question  of  the  creation  of  Shop  Committees 
should  on  no  account  be  delayed  until  the  calling  of 
regular  conventions  of  the  unions.  The  organization 
of  Shop  Committees  must  be  advocated  and  applied 
everywhere,  regardless  of  any  preconceived  idea.  The 
organization  of  a  Shop  Committee,  whatever  the  union 
it  originates  from  may  be,  cannot  remain  a  passive 
witness  of  the  growing  crisis ;  it  must  take  up  and  de- 
cide the  big  questions  concerning  its  enterprise.  Until 
the  creation  of  a  powerful  network  of  Shop  Commit- 
tees is  assured,  later  developing  into  the  nucleus  of  a 
union,  the  old  connection  of  the  union  with  the  masses 
remains  (proxies,  collectors,  delegates,  etc.). 

10.  The  organization  of  Shop  Committees  must 
proceed  side  by  side  with  the  creation  of  subordinate 
control  committees.  It  is  necessary  to  teach  the  work- 
ers by  means  of  special  control  committees  to  keep 
careful  watch  upon  current  events  in  and  outside  the 
concern.  The  system  of  permanent  or  special  control 
committees  must  be  widely  applied.  Every  branch 
shop  activity  beginning  with  accidents,  sanitary  con- 
ditions, as  well  as  the  activity  of  the  government  and 
municipal  institutions,  must  be  objects  of  interest  for 
the  control  committee.  It  would  be  desirable  to  organ- 
ize the  control  committees  by  trade  unions  as  well  as 
by  districts  so  as  to  draw  the  workers  from  the  narrow 
frames  of  their  concern. 

11.  The  revolutionary  trade  unions  should  not  re- 
fuse to  make  use  of  the  mixed  organizations  with 
limited  power  created  by  the  bourgeois  government  in 
place  of  real  Shop  Committees.  The  German,  Italian 
and  Austrian  bourgeois  wish  to  confine  the  Shop  Com- 
mittee movement  to  legal  activity.  It  was  a  great 
mistake  our  comrades  made  when  they  refused  to 
participate  in  the  e'ection  of  the  Shop  Committee  and 
adopted  this  name  for  groups  of  disciples  they  have 
created.  The  revolutionary  trade  unions  should  not 
miss  any  opportunitv  to  utilize  the  legral  institutions 
for  the  purpose  of  disrupting  them.  The  task  of  the 
revolutionary  unions  consists  in  the  breaking  up  of 
legal  forms,  in  the  filling  of  the  Shop  Committees  with 

58 


revolutionary  activity  and  by  their  every  day  sys- 
tematic and  obstinate  work  transform  the  organiza- 
tions created  by  the  government  into  a  weapon  of 
revolution.  To  penetrate  such  organizations  for  the 
sake  of  bursting  them  from  within,  such  is  the  task  of 
the  followers  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions. 
The  boycott  advocated  in  some  countries  even  with  the 
best  of  intentions  cannot  be  accepted  as  a  wise  policy. 
Such  a  policy  is  evidence  of  an  underestimation  of  the 
working  masses  and  an  overestimating  of  the  legal 
limits  of  the  law. 

IV.     The  Conquest  of  the  Old  Trade  Unions 

12.  The  counter-revolutionary  part  played,  at  the 
present  time,  by  the  trade  union  bureaucracy;  the 
strangling  of  the  revolutionary  movement  of  the  work- 
ing class  awakened  in  certain  sections  of  the  revolu- 
tionary proletariat  in  all  countries  the  thought  of  leav- 
ing the  unions  and  the  creation  of  new  purely  revolu- 
tionary unions.  This  is  the  origin  of  the  watchword 
"Destroy  the  Unions"  and  "Out  of  the  Unions"  which 
met  with  a  rather  favorable  reception  among  that 
section  of  the  revolutionary  elements  who  were  rather 
despairing  and  in  a  pessimistic  mood,  having  lost  con- 
fidence in  the  masses.  This  policy  of  breaking  off  from7 
the  unions  by  the  revolutionary  elements.,  thanks  to 
which  the  great  masses  are  abandoned  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  reactionary  leadership,  plays  into  the 
hands  of  the  counter-revolutionary  bureaucracy  and 
must  be  resolutely  and  categorically  rejected.  Not  to 
destroy,  but  to  conquer  the  unions — i.  e.,  the  great 
mass  of  workers  who  are  still  in  the  old  trade  unions — 
this  should  be  our  rallying  point  in  the  development 
of  the  revolutionary  struggle. 

13.  Meeting  half  way  the  slogan  "Out  of  the 
Unions,"  the  trade  union  bureaucracy  of  all  countries 
began  to  expel  the  leading  elements  of  the  revolution- 
ary trade  union  movement.  This  rendered  still  more 
acute  the  pessimistic  mood  and  strengthened  the  slo- 
gan "Out  of  the  Unions."  But  it  would  be  a  great 
error  on  the  part  of  the  supporters  of  the  Red  Inter- 
national if,  being  drawn  into  this  provocation,  they 
were  to  abandon  the  trade  union  movement  and  con- 
fine themselves  in  little  revolutionary  unions. 

The  workers  expelled  from  the  unions  should  not  be 

59 


disintegrated.  They  must  remain  organized  on  the 
same  plane  as  they  were  before  the  exclusion,  acting 
always  as  a  definite,  legal  part  of  the  union  which  had 
.expelled  them.  By  no  means  should  they  play  into 
the  hands  of  the  trade  union  bureaucracy  and  facili- 
tate it  in  the  struggle  against  the  ever-increasing 
revolutionary  spirit  of  the  masses. 

14.  Our  policy  with  respect  to  old  trade  unions 
should  take  into  consideration  that,  at  the  actual  mo* 
ment,  they  embrace  many  millions  of  workers.  The 
task  of  the  revolutionary  elements  in  the  trade  unions 
does  not  consist  in  wresting  from  the  unions  the  best 
and  class  conscious  workers  in  order  to  create  small 
organizations.  Their  task  should  be  to  revolutionize 
the  unions,  to  transform  them  into  a  weapon  of  social 
revolution  by  means  of  the  everyday  struggle  in  favor 
of  all  the  revolutionary  demands  put  forward  by  the 
workers  within  the  old  trade  unions.  Every  kind  of 
organizing  work  should  develop  along  the  lines  of  fight- 
ing the  treachery  and  slackness  of  the  trade  union 
bureaucracy  in  the  struggle  for  the  everyday  inter- 
ests of  the  workers.  To  conquer  the  unions  means  to 
conquer  the  masses,  and  these  can  only  be  conquered 
by  a  systematically  obstinate  work,  setting  against 
the  policy  of  class  collaboration  that  of  our  steady 
revolutionary  line  of  action.  The  slogan  "Out  of  the 
Unions"  prevents  us  from  conquering  the  masses  to 
our  cause  and  retards  the  advance  of  the  social  revo- 
lution. 

15.  It  would  be  similarly  erroneous  to  consider  the 
organization  of  trade  unions  as  an  aim  in  itself.  They 
are  but  only  the  means  to  an  end.  By  rejecting  the 
motto  "Out  of  the  Unions"  we  must  resolutely  declare 
ourselves  against  the  fettish  of  organization  and  the 
watchword  "Unity  at  Any  Cost  and  Under  All  Circum- 
stances." The  conquest  of  the  unions  does  not  imply 
the  seizure  of  the  union  cashbook  or  of  its  property, 
but  the  conquest  of  its  members.  The  difference  is 
easily  forgotten  and  the  union  is  often  confused  with 
its  office,  its  cash  and  its  officials.  This  "trade  union 
machinery"  standpoint  should  encounter  a  resolute  op- 
position on  the  part  of  the  revolutionary  class  con- 
scious unions.  The  revolutionary  trade  unions  are 
against  the  split.    They  stand  for  unity,  but  they  do 

60 


not  fear  the  split.     This  should  be  brought  home  to 
every  one  of  us. 

V.     Problems  of  Organization  in  the  Principal 
Countries 

16.  The  practical  organization  problems  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  Red  Labor  Union  International  are  dif- 
ferent in  each  country.  Though  the  principles  are  the 
same,  still  their  practical  applications  change  accord- 
ing to  the  distinctive  peculiarities  of  each  country  and 
the  form  of  its  labor  organizations.  The  labor  move- 
ment is  an  organic  product  of  the  industrial,  social  and 
economic  development  of  a  given  country.  Hence  the 
differences  in  the  construction  of  the  unions,  forms  and 
methods  of  their  struggle.  The  sooner  the  trade 
unions  change  from  pure  and  simple  craft  organiza- 
tions into  revolutionary  class  conscious  unions,  the 
sooner  they  will  reach  one  form  of  organization  and 
one  method  of  fighting.  To  hasten  this  process  is  the 
main  problem  of  the  followers  of  the  Red  Labor  Inter- 
national. 

17.  In  Italy  the  labor  organizations  are  divided, 
nevertheless  the  presence  of  a  revolutionary  prole- 
tariat in  the  ranks  of  the  General  Confederation  of 
Labor  does  not  excuse  at  all  the  action  of  the  railroad 
transport  workers  and  the  Syndicalists  Union  who  re- 
fused to  enter  into  one  general  proletarian  organiza- 
tion. The  reformistic  efforts  of  the  leaders  could  be 
counteracted  only  when  all  the  revolutionary  unions 
would  combine  into  one  proletarian  organization.  The 
field  is  ripe  for  the  creation  of  such  a  unification  and 
thereby  the  followers  of  the  Red  Labor  Union  Interna- 
tional must  enter  the  General  Confederation  of  Labor 
and  fight  for  and  defend  the  revolutionary  position. 

18.  In  England,  irrespective  of  a  powerful  labor 
movement,  which  is  undergoing  a  radical  change,  there 
are  attempts  at  creating  new  organizations  of  the 
I.  W.  W.,  or  "One  Big  Union"  type.  Such  attempts 
should  be  absolutely  and  sharply  condemned.  It  is  up 
to  the  revolutionary  labor  men  in  England  to  remain 
inside  those  gigantic  unions  and  fight  for  the  accept- 
ance of  the  principles  of  the  Red  Labor  Union  Inter- 
national. To  wrest  out  tens  of  thousands  of  revolu- 
tionary workers  and  form  new  independent  organiza- 
tions is  a  crime  against  the  working  class  of  England 

61 


and  the  whole  world.  Hence  all  the  organizations 
which  are  in  accord  with  the  Red  Trade  Union  Interna- 
tional must  concentrate  all  their  efforts  for  the  pur- 
pose of  winning  over  the  unions  one  by  one,  console 
date  their  ranks,  not  wasting  time  on  the  selected  few, 
"the  top,"  who  are  not  in  touch  with  the  masses. 

19.  In  the  United  States  of  America,  where  we  have 
the  reactionary  American  Federation  of  Labor,  some 
independent  unions,  the  I.  W.  W.  and  others,  the  prin- 
ciples of  staying  within  the  old  unions  is  prevailing 
here  too.  The  members  of  the  I.  W.  W.  should  join 
their  respective  trade  unions  and  spread  their  propa- 
ganda among  them  explaining  the  working  dass  prob- 
lems. The  longer  they  keep  themselves  aloof  from  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  the  greater  will  be  the 
sufferings  and  the  harder  will  be  the  process  of  ad- 
vancement of  the  unorganized  workers  there.  The  in- 
dependent unions  which  favor  the  Red  Labor  Union 
International  should  co-ordinate  their  activities,  and 
come  to  an  understanding  with  those  labor  council 
which  officially  belong  to  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  but  agree  with  our  tactics.  Co-ordination  and 
unity  of  action  among  the  local  organizations  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  and  the  I.  W.  W.  favor- 
ing the  Red  International  should  also  be  established. 

20.  In  France  the  revolutionary  minority  of  the 
General  Confederation  of  Labor  took  the  correct  stand 
in  condemning  the  Council  of  the  Rhone  Estuary 
Unions  for  leaving  the  Confederation.  The  conauest 
of  the  unions  in  France  is  proceeding  rapidly  and  there 
is  no  ground  for  forming  separate  organizations.  The 
Congress  therefore  recommends  the  small  organiza- 
tion, bearing  the  name  of  "International  Confedera- 
tion of  Workers,"  to  dissolve  its  own  organization  and 
join  the  General  Confederation  of  Labor  and  fight  side 
by  side  with  the  revolutionary  minority  against  the 
pernicious  policy  of  Messrs.  Jouhaux,  Merheim  &  Co. 

21.  In  Spain,  especially  in  connection  with  the  reac- 
tion raging  there,  it  is  imperative  that  the  economic 
organizations  form  a  single  unit.  The  unity  which  was 
already  fairly  under  wTay  was  blocked  by  the  reformist 
leaders  of  the  General  Labor  Union.  In  spite  of  these 
reformist  leaders,  such  unity  must  be  put  forward  as 
the  fighting  task  of  the  moment,  and  carried  out  over 
the  heads  of  its  opponents.    The  second  task  before  us 

62 


in  Spain  is  to  form  industrial  unions  on  a  national 
scale  (metal  workers,  textile  workers,  etc.)  which  were 
destroyed  on  account  of  wrong  interpretations  of  the 
federalist  idea.  The  lack  of  industrial  organizations  is 
a  very  strong  drag  on  the  struggle  of  the  working  class 
before,  during  and  especially  after  the  social  revolu- 
tion. 

The  Communist  groups  working  within  the  general 
union  must  compose  a  single  block  with  the  National 
Confederation  of  Labor  in  Spain  for  a  co-ordinated 
defensive  and  offensive  action.  What  concerns  the 
unions  split  away  from  the  centra!  reformist  organ- 
izations and  accepting  the  standpoint  of  the  Red  Inter- 
national of  Labor  Unions,  those  must  in  the  shortest 
possible  time  affiliate  with  the  National  Confederation 
of  Labor. 

22.  More  complex  and  confused  is  the  situation  in 
Germany.  Here  the  working  masses  are  organized  in 
independent  unions.  Syndicalists  had  never  had  any 
influence.  As  a  result  of  the  treacherous  betrayal  of 
the  trade  union  bureaucracy,  after  the  November 
events,  many  new  unions  have  been  organized.  One  of 
them,  the  "Independent  Workers'  Union  of  Gensel- 
kirchen,"  the  "General  Workers'  Union,"  the  "Free 
Union  of  Agricultural  Workers,"  the  "Union  of  Mental 
and  Manual  Workers."  All  these  organizations  remain 
unimportant  whether  in  regard  to  their  membership  or 
economic  and  political  influence  on  the  events  in  Ger- 
many. The  principles  of  these  unions  are  not  quite 
dear  because  of  their  slogan  of  smashing  at  all  costs 
the  old  unions.  They  bring  only,  confusion  in  the 
ranks  of  the  revolutionary  workers,  weaken  their  fight- 
ing power  directed  against  the  trade  union  bureauc- 
racy. 

23.  Revolutionary  elements  in  the  trade  unions 
have  organized  within  these  organizations  strong 
groups  and  are  leading  an  efficient  struggle  against 
the  trade  union  bureaucracy.  The  bureaucracy  an- 
swered their  action  by  wholesale  expulsion  of  the  revo- 
lutionary leaders  in  local  groups  and  of  the  general 
organization.  The  expelled  groups  of  members  must 
not  stay  isolated.  They  must  unite  and  establish  close 
connections  with  the  revolutionary  factions  of  the  for- 
mer membership  so  as  not  to  be  useless  in  the  struggle 
for  the  revolutionizing  of  the  trade  unions.     Other 

63 


organizations  favoring  the  Red  International  of  Trade 
Unions  must  lead  a  decisive  campaign  under  the  slogan 
"Down  with  the  Treacherous  Trade  Union  Bureauc- 
racy Destroying  the  Unionist."  They  should  not  drive 
out  of  the  old  centralized  independent  unions  new  cate- 
gories of  workers. 

24.  In  all  other  countries  the  work  should  go  on  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  outlined  above.  The 
nearest  approach  to  the  victory  of  the  Red  Labor  Union 
International  has  been  made  in  Czecho-Slovakia  and 
Poland.  In  these  two  countries  there  is  a  powerful 
Communist  movement.  The  task  before  those  who 
are  against  Amsterdam  is  to  wrest  the  general  trade 
union  center  of  their  respective  countries  from  the 
Amsterdam  organization  within  the  shortest  possible 
time.  We  can  recommend,  in  a  general  way,  that, 
within  three  months,  as  soon  as  the  resolutions  and 
decisions  of  the  First  Congress  of  the  Revolutionary 
Labor  Unions  are  published,  the  question  of  Moscow 
versus  Amsterdam  should  be  voted  on  by  every  union 
in  every  country. 

VI.     The  International  Organization  by  Trades  and  by 
Industries 

25.  International  organizations  of  individual  trade 
unions  started  to  appear  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  there 
were  already  approximately  thirty  international  labor 
organizations.  The  character  of  these  organizations 
was  in  every  case  alike. 

They  were  loosely  linked  together  national  organ- 
izations, coming  together  with  the  purpose  of  adopt- 
ing unanimous  resolutions,  knowing  beforehand  that 
the  elected  central  organ  will  not  accomplish  any  other 
work,  except  gathering  statistical  data  and  informative 
material.  Those  were  not  organizations  for  the  inter- 
national class  struggle,  but  for  mutual  information. 
With  very  rare  exceptions,  there  isn't  a  single  demon- 
stration to  the  credit  of  these  organizations,  except  the 
collection  of  funds  during  some  big  strikes,  etc. 

26.  The  war  has  destroyed  these  organizations  and 
the  working  class  at  the  cessation  of  the  drawn  out 
slaughter  found  it  necessary  to  re-establish  the  broken 
links.  The  same  people  who  for  a  long  period  tried 
to  prove  the  inability  of  keeping  the  international  or- 

64 


ganizations  intact  and  that  no  proletarian  solidarity 
was  possible  during  the  war  have  appeared  again  on 
the  arena.  Reformism  and  politics  is  the  trademark  of 
all  these  organizations.  They  have  shaped  themselves 
not  on  a  program  of  revolutionary  action  but  on  social 
peace  and  harmony,  and  their  aim  is  not  to  fight  united 
against  international  capital,  but  simply  to  inform 
one  another  of  the  current  events  in  each  country. 

27.  The  Red  International  from  its  formation  rec- 
ognized the  necessity  of  having  the  revolutionary 
unions  remain  within  the  former  international  organ- 
izations of  separate  trades  or  industries  for  the  pur- 
pose of  capturing  them.  But  as  soon  as  the  Amster- 
dam international  began  to  realize  the  danger  of  revo- 
lutionizing the  spirit  of  the  class  conscious  unions,  it 
undertook  a  series  of  measures  by  which  recognition  of 
the  Amsterdam  international  becomes  a  primal  condi- 
tion for  affiliating  any  union  with  its  separate  inter- 
national trade  union  organization.  By  this  decision  as 
well  as  by  many  others  the  Amsterdam  international 
has  taken  the  initiative  for  the  break-up  of  the  labor 
movement,  expelling  from  the  organizations  all  those 
who  have  pledged  their  moral  solidarity  with  the  in- 
ternational of  revolutionary  action  and  class  struggle. 

28.  These  decisions  force  the  revolutionary  trade 
unions  expelled  from  their  international  organization 
to  unite  for  counter  action.  _ 

Having  no  intention  to  leave  the  international 
unions,  and  create  new  organizations  until  all  means 
of  resistance  within  the  old  unions,  that  will  lead  to 
unity,  are  exhausted;  the  first  congress  of  revolution- 
ary labor  unions  recommends  to  all  the  revolutionary 
class  conscious  unions  who  recognize  the  necessity  of 
the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  to  gather  all  their 
forces  and  organize  them  by  industry  or  by  trade  inter- 
national committees  of  propaganda  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  together  the  split  revolutionary  elements.  \ 
These  international  committees  of  propaganda  must 
conduct  their  work  in  all  countries  upon  the  principle 
accepted  by  the  First  Congress  of  Red  Labor  Unions,' 
and  agitate  among  the  masses  the  inevitability  of  the* 
class  struggle  and  the  absurdity  of  bourgeois  illusions 
of  a  world  peace. 

29.  It  is  up  to  the  propaganda  committees  not  only 
to  agitate  for  revolutionary  class  struggle  and  the  dic- 

65 


tatorship  of  the  proletariat,  but  also  to  expose  the 
intrigues  of  the  Amsterdamers,  who  in  order  to  save 
themselves  are  bringing  disintegration  in  the  ranks  of 
the  labor  movement.  The  committees  on  propaganda 
take  the  initiative  to  issue  calls  for  councils  and  con- 
ferences, publishing  the  necessary  literature,  collect 
funds,  inform  the  revolutionary  unions  of  the  current 
events  in  their  trade,  give  early  information  about 
strikes  and  conflicts,  fight  against  scabbing,  in  other 
words  introduce  into  life  true  principle  of  revolutionary 
class  struggle. 

30.  Each  international  committee  of  propaganda  is 
connected  with  the  Red  Labor  International,  through 
its  representative,  who  are  on  the  Central  Council  of 
the  Red  International  with  a  consultative  voice.  All 
international  committees  perform  their  duties  with  the 
close  participation  and  under  continual  control  of  the 
Central  Council  of  the  Red  International.  Conferences 
and  congresses  that  may  be  called  together  by  the  In- 
ternational Propaganda  Committees  should  take  place 
after  preliminary  consultation  with  the  Central  Coun- 
cil of  the  Red  International. 

31.  Unions  expelled  from  the  international  organ- 
izations must  not  remain  dispersed.  If  they  have  not 
yet  joined  the  corresponding  International  Propaganda 
Committee  they  should  then  do  so  at  once  and  place 
before  the  International  Propaganda  Committee  the 
question  of  constituting  an  international  organization 
in  their  trade  or  industry. 

In  case  of  expulsion  of  a  number  of  unions,  the  Inter- 
national Propaganda  Committee  may,  by  special  deci- 
sion of  the  Red  International,  be  transformed  into  an 
Organization  Bureau,  for  the  calling  of  a  congress  of 
the  revolutionary  trade  unions  involved  and  the  crea- 
tion of  an  international  organization,  to  counteract  the 
work  done  by  those  who,  following  the  orders  from 
Amsterdam,  are  expelling  unions  from  their  corre- 
sponding international  trade  or  industrial  organiza- 
tions. 

VII.     National  Unions 

32.  The  influence  of  the  bourgeois  ideology  upon 
the  proletarian  masses  is  yet  so  strong  that  we  still 
have  in  many  countries  trade  unions  uniting  workmen 
of  the   same  nationality.     Thus,   in   Czecho-Slovakia 

66 


separate  unions  exist  for  Checho-Slovak  workers,  and 
others  for  German  workers  only.  In  Poland,  where 
until  recently  the  unions  corresponded  to  different 
party  groupings,  the  amalgamation  of  the  communist 
trade  unions  with  those  under  the  influence  of  the 
Polish  Socialist  Party  had  already  taken  place.  But 
these  unions  have  still  kept  their  national  character. 
Thus,  alongside  with  class  trade  unions  we  have  Jewish 
trade  unions,  with  their  special  central  body.  In 
America  we  find  unions  consisting  exclusively  of 
negroes,  owing  to  the  old  trade  unions  refusing  admis- 
sion to  colored  workers.  This  survival  of  old  prejudices 
should  be  most  energetically  and  actively  fought 
against  by  the  adherents  of  the  Red  International  of 
Labor  Unions.  The  fusion  of  nationalist  trade  unions 
with  the  other  unions  of  the  country  must  be  the  prac- 
tical watchword  in  the  struggle  for  unity  of  the  eco- 
nomic organizations  of  the  working  c'ass.  National 
prejudices  must  be  destroyed  once  for  all. 

VIII.     Exclusion  of  Unions 

33.  The  activities  of  the  Amsterdam  International 
and  of  national  organizations  affiliated  to  it,  have  been 
leading,  for  the  last  few  months,  a  serried  attack 
against  the  revolutionary  unions.  Knowing  that  its 
last  days  have  arrived,  the  yellow  Amsterdam  Inter- 
national proclaims  the  motto  "Revolutionists  and  Com- 
munists Out  of  the  Unions."  This  offensive  on  the 
part  of  the  Amsterdamers  must  be  met  locally  with  a 
most  decisive  and  determined  set-back  under  the 
banner,  "Down  With  the  Splitters!  Long  Live  the 
Unity  of  the  Labor  Union  Movement."  Under  ho  cir- 
cumstances should  we  aid  Amsterdam  by  voluntarily? 
leaving  the  unions:  this  would  have  played  into  the 
hands  of  the  Amsterdamers,  and  would  have  been  much 
too  unprofitable  for  the  left  wing  of  the  labor  movement  j 

34.  The  expulsion  of  separate  groups  and  of  local 
sections,  is  usually  accompanied  by  the  central  organ- 
ization forming  new  units  aspiring  to  split  the  unity  of 
the  local  revolutionary  organization.  In  order  to  smash 
up  the  local  revolutionary  trade  union  the  Amster- 
damers enter  into  secret  relations  with  the  employers, 
who  in  their  turn,  begin  their  attacks  against  the 
workers.  As  the  subscriptions  for  the  strike  funds  are 
in  the  hands  of  the  central  administration  of  the  union, 

67 


the  local  revolutionary  section  is  thus  left  at  the  mercy 
of  the  employers. 

35.  This  monstrous  treachery  must  be  met  with  a 
resolute  attack  from  two  quarters.  On  the  one  hand, 
all  the  forces  of  the  revo'lutionary  unions  and  of  the 
Communist  Party  must  be  directed  towards  the  strug- 
gle against  this  treachery,  disclosing  the  open  as  well 
as  the  secret  agreements  between  the  leaders  of  the 
trade  unions  and  the  enemies  of  the  working  class. 
Without  leaving  the  unions  it  is  necessary  to  do  every- 
thing in  one's  power  to  organize  as  soon  as  possible 
the  expelled  unions,  according  to  their  trades  and  to 
create  a  national  centre  of  expelled  unions  which  would 
lead,  according  to  the  powers  given  to  it  by  the  local 
branches  of  the  union,  the  fight  against  the  destroyers 
of  the  febor  movement,  requesting  the  readmission  into 
the  union  of  the  expelled  organizations. 

IX.    The  Labor  Press 

36.  The  creation  of  a  revolutionary  trade  union 
press  should  become  one  of  the  most  important  prob- 
lems in  the  organization  of  trade  unions.  The  old  trade 
unions  possess  a  widely  spread  press  with  its  own 
traditions.  It  is  necessary  to  create  in  each  country 
a  leading  organ  and  a  series  of  papers  for  each  indus- 
try. The  most  serious  attention  should  be  paid  on  the 
part  of  the  adherents  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor 
Unions  to  the  creation  of  a  good  press.  Following 
step  by  step  the  activities  of  the  leading  elements  of 
any  one  union,  exposing  their  inactivity,  passiveness, 
wavering  and  hesitation  in  the  every  day  struggle, 
taking  not  of  all  the  weak  points  of  the  Amsterdam 
leaders  the  central  organ  of  this  or  that  industry  should 
be  able  to  bring  home  to  the  non-party  masses  that  the 
Amsterdamers,  besides  betraying  the  interests  of  the 
working  class  in  questions  of  general  politics,  always 
take,  in  their  every  day  practical  work,  touching  the 
vital  interests  of  the  working  classes,  a  position  which 
is  entirely  in  contradiction  not  only  with  the  interests 
of  the  working  class  as  a  whole,  but  even  with  the 
interests  of  this  or  that  group  of  workers. 

X.    Organization  of  the  Women  in  the  Trade  Unions. 

37.  The  followers  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor 
Unions  must  pay  special  attention  to  the  organization 
of  the  women  workers  into  the  revolutionary  trade 

68 


union  movement.  No  separate  organizations  for 
women  shall  be  created.  The  proletariat  is  unique,  and 
as  a  class  must  build  its  organizations,  disregarding 
the  sex  of  the  toilers,  but  according  to  industries. 

The  women  workers  as  the  most  backward  category 
of  toilers  are  more  exploited  t,han  the  men,  the  reformist 
unions  following  the  course  of  least  resistance  are 
establishing  their  wages  not  in  regard  to  the  qualifica- 
tion or  productivity,  but  according  to  the  sex  of  the 
workers.  When  any  crisis  breaks  out,  the  conservative 
unions  take  the  initative  of  firing  the  women  first.  It 
is  a  very  harmful  anti-class  policy  of  the  old  trade 
unions  and  must  be  met  with  stubborn  resistance.  The 
working  woman  is  our  fellow  in  exploitation  and  our 
aim  consists  in  making  her  an  active  fighter  for  the 
social  revolution  and  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat. 
Only  these  unions  merit  to  be  members  of  the  Red 
International  of  Labor  Unions,  which  in  the  question 
of  labor  have  freed  themselves  from  the  old  prejudices 
and  have  taken  upon  themselves  the  defense  and  safe- 
guard of  women  labor,  having  before  them  the  same 
aim:  increase  the  army  of  social  revolution  by  new 
and  tireless  fighters  from  the  midst  of  the  exploited 
and  oppressed  women  workers. 

XL    Work  Among  the  Youth 

38.  The  revolutionary  trade  unions  must  pay  par- 
ticular attention  to  the  education  of  the  young  mem- 
bers of  their  union.  The  old  unions — in  so  far  as  they 
dealt  with  the  young  generation — did  sov  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  technical  education  of  skilled  workers, 
while  the  revolutionary  trade  unions  must  carry  the 
center  of  gravity  of  their  work  only  to  their  com- 
munist education.  There  are  at  present  organized  in 
all  the  countries  of  the  world  over  a  million  of  young 
proletarians  within  the  youths'  societies.  The  trade 
unions  must  be  most  attentive  to  their  young  members, 
bearing  in  mind  that  it  is  upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
growing  generation  that  will  fall  the  actual  carrying 
out  of  the  social  revolution  as  well  as  its  results. 

To  conquer  the  young  generation,  to  educate  it,  to 
raise  its  consciousness  to  the  inevitability  of  the  social 
revolution  and  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat,  to 
make  every  one  of  them  a  conscious  fighter  in  the 
forthcoming  ruthless  social  battles — this  is  the  impera- 

69 


tive  duty  of  all  the  adherents  of  the  Red  International 
of  Labor  Unions. 

XII.    Conditions  of  Affiliation  to  the  Red  Trade 
Union  International 

39.  In  order  that  the  revolutionary  trade  unions 
should  be  able  to  succeed  in  solving  the\  aforesaid 
problems  on  a  national  and  international  scale,  the 
following  two  conditions  are  necessary :  A  united 
understanding  of  the  problems  of  the  Red  Interna- 
tional) can  fulfill  its  requirements  only  when  it  is  based 
on  clearness,  and  each  union,  joining  the  revolutionary 
International  is  informed  of  its  duties  and  require- 
ments and  to  what  exent  they  are  to  be  performed. 

40.  The  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  has 
been  created  in  order  to  put  in  opposition  td  the 
ambigious  and  bourgeois  program  of  the  yellow 
Amsterdam  International  a  clear  platform  in  revolu- 
tionary action.  It  is  therefore  clear  that  membership 
in  the  Red  International  is  possible  when  certain  obli- 
gations are  fulfilled,  without  which  the  members  may 
become  as  formal  and  inactive  as  is  the  case  with  our 
opponents. 

41.  The  first  condition  is,  therefore,  the  recognition 
and  and  fulfillment  of  the  principles  of  revolutionary 
class  strugg-e;  this  means  that  only  those  trade  unions 
can  become  members  of  the  Red  International  which 
carry  on  the  struggle  against  the  system  based  on 
classes  and  against  all  forms  of  class  co-operation; 
onty  those  who  combat,  not  by  words  but  by  deeds, 
the  theory  of  social  peace  and  the  efforts  to  solve  the 
social  question  by  harmonious  co-operation  with  the 
ruling  classes;  the  revolutionary  class-struggle  is  the 
basis  of  the  Red  Internationa1!. 

42.  The  revolutionary  class-struggle  must  always 
be  conducted  with  the  constant  aim  in  view  of  over- 
throwing capitalism  and  establishing  the  power  of  the 
toilers,  i.  e.,  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat.  In 
order  to  bring  about  the  social  revolution  and  destroy 
class  antagonism,  the  working  class  has  to  be  organ- 
ized solidly  and  must  create  the  means  for  its  struggle, 
otherwise  it  will  be  defeated  during  the  first  days  of 
the  revolution.  We  must  oppose  the  dictatorship  of 
the  bourgeoisie  by  the  concentrated  power  of  the  work- 
ing class  which  realizes  class  aims  and  tasks.    The  rec- 

70 


ognition  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  is  the 
second  consideration  to  be  reckoned  with. 

43.  At  the  first  period  of  the  existence  of  the  Red 
International,  in  the  period  of  organization,  there  were 
cases  of  simultaneous  affiliations  of  different  unions  to 
both  Internationals.  An  end  should  be  put  to  such 
"double  allegiance."  Breaking  with  the  Amsterdam 
International  is  for  the  general  labor  union  centres  a 
prerequisite  for  the  affiliation  with  the  Red  Interna- 
tional!, because  such  a  simultaneous  affiliation  with  two 
mutually  antagonistic  organizations  is  inadmissible  in 
theory  and  extremely  detrimental  in  practice.  In  the 
countries  where  the  general  trade  union  centres  belong 
to  the  Amsterdam  International,  separate  unions,  fed- 
erations or  national  minorities  may  belong  to  the  Red 
International  and  at  the  same  time  remain  within  the 
old  trade  union  organizations. 

44.  The  fourth  condition  for  joining  the  Red  Inter- 
national consists  in  the  unity  of  action  on  the  part  of 
ajl  the  organizations  affiliated  with  it  in  each  country. 
If,  as  a  transitional  measure,  we  could  allow  the  exist- 
ence of  several  organizations  affiliated  with  the  Red 
International,  it  would  only  be  on  condition  of  their 
having  concerted  defensive  and  offensive  action  against 
the  bourgeoisie.  This  condition  is  absolutely  essential, 
as,  otherwise,  it  might  happen,  as  was  the  case  in  the 
March  days  in  Germany,  that  some  organizations 
belonging  to  the  Red  International,  carrying  on)  an 
armed  fight  against  the  bourgeoisie,  while  others  attack 
our  comrades  in  the  rear. 

45.  An  international  organization  is  only  then 
properly  established  when  its  decisions  are  carried  out 
by  corresponding  organizations  in  all  countries.  The 
experience  of  international  organizations  before,  and 
especially  during  the  war  shows  that  many  organiza- 
tions do  not  consider  the  decisions  adopted  by  inter- 
national congresses  as  binding  on  the  national  organ- 
izations. But  the  Red  International  cannot  endorse 
their  standpoint  and  therefore  establishes  the  neces- 
sity of  international  proletarian  discipline — i.  e.,  that 
separate  national  organizations  must  abide  by  the  de- 
cisions of  the  Internationa1!  Congresses  and  Confer- 
ences. 


71 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  RED  INTERNATIONAL 
OF    LABOR   UNIONS. 

The  class  struggle  has  now  reached  such  a  degree 
of  development  and  acuteness  that  the  working  class, 
in  order  to  successfully  conduct  and  complete  its  strug- 
gle for  emancipation,  must  fight  as  a  soud  revolution- 
ary class  power,  not  only  on  a  national  but  also  on  an 
international  scale,  against  the  bourgeoisie,  who  de- 
spite the  severe  competition  on  the  world  market,  is 
closely  united  in  its  hatred  of  the  proletarian  revolu- 
tion and  solidly  welded  against  the  slightest  attempt 
of  the  proletariat  to  free  itself  from  exploitation.  Since 
the  exploitation  is  international,  the  fight  against  it 
must  have  an  international  character.  All  interna- 
tionals of  labor  unions,  which  existed  up  to  the  pres- 
ent moment,  at  best  were  but  international  statistical 
bureaus  for  mutual  information.  The  International 
Secretariat  of  Labor  Unions  before  the  war  was  mere'y 
an  information  agency,  it  did  not  pursue  any  militant 
class  aims.  The  Amsterdam  International  of  Labor 
Unions  is  even  less  fit  to  deal  with  the  issues  at  hand 
than  its  predecessor.  The  first  was  but  an  informa- 
tion office,  the  latter  occupies  itself  with  politics  of  the 
worst  kind,  with  antiproletarian,  bourgeois  politics.  It 
sets  forth  the  idea  of  class  co-operation,  social  peace 
and  peaceful  transition  from  capitalism  to  socialism. 
In  its  essence  it  is  an  international  of  counteraction 
to  the  struggle  for  emancipation  of  the  working  class. 
Against  this  international  of  impotence,  confusion,  sub- 
servience to  the  bourgeoisie,  such  as  the  Amsterdam 
International  is,  we  must  oppose — an  international  of 
revolutionary  vigor,  of  class  activity — an  international 
which  together  with  the  Communist  International  will 
organize  the  working  class  for  the  overthrow  of  capi- 
taMsm,  the  destruction  of  the  bourgeois  state  and  the 
establishment  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat; 
an  international  which  will  seize  all  the  means  of  pro- 
duction and  establish  the  Communist  commonwealth. 

Such  a  militant  labor  union  international  can  be 
built  up  only  by  revolutionary  class  unions,  conscious 
of  the  purpose  and  methods  of  the  defensive  and  offen- 

'72 


sive  struggle  against  the  class  enemy.  The  problem 
history  has  put  before  the  •  revolutionary  unions  re- 
quires the  utmost  concentration  of  power,  unexampled 
intensity  and  the  greatest  self-sacrifice  of  the  con- 
scious vanguard  elements  of  the  working  class. 

I.     Name 

The  international  congress  of  revolutionary,  class- 
conscious  trade  and  industrial  unions,  which  unites 
the  revolutionary  labor  union  organizations  of  all 
countries,  decides  to  create  a  permanent  international 
organization  under  the  name:  The  Red  International 
of  Labor  Unions. 

II.     Aims  and  Purpose 

The  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  has  for  its 
aims: 

(1)  To  organize  the  large  working  mass  in  the 
whole  world  for  the  overthrow  of  capitalism,  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  toilers  from  oppression  and  exploita- 
tion and  the  establishment  of  the  socialist  common- 
wealth. 

(2)  To  carry  on  a  wide  agitation  and  propaganda 
of  the  principles  of  revolutionary  class  struggle,  social 
revolution,  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  and  revo- 
lutionary mass  action  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing 
the  capitalist  system  and  the  bourgeois  state. 

(3)  To  fight  against  the  corruptive  ulcer,  gnawing 
at  the  vitals  of  the  world  labor  union  movement,  of 
compromising  with  the  bourgeoisie  against  the  ideals 
of  class  co-operation  and  social  peace  and  the  absurd 
hopes  for  a  peaceable  transition  from  capitalism  to 
socialism. 

(4)  To  unite  the  revolutionary  class  elements  oi? 
the  world  labor  union  movement  and  carry  on  decisive 
battle  against  The  International  Bureau  of  Labor  at- 
tached to  the  League  of  Nations  and  against  the 
Amsterdam  International  Federation  of  Trade  Unions, 
which  by  their  program  and  tactics  are  but  the  bul- 
wark of  the  worM  bourgeoisie. 

(5)  To  coordinate  and  regulate  the  struggle  of  the 
working  class  in  all  countries  and  organize  interna- 
tional demonstrations  each  time,  when  the  situation 
demands  them. 

(6)  To  take  the  initiative  of  international  cam- 
paigns about  prominent  events  of  class  struggle,  to 

73 


open  subscription  lists  for  the  benefit  of  strikers  in 
great  social  conflicts,  etc. 

III.     Membership 

Any  revolutionary  economic  class  organization  is 
eligible  to  membership  in  the  Red  International  of 
Labor  Unions  if  it  accepts  the  following  conditions : 

(1)  Endorsement  of  the  principles  of  revolutionary 
class  struggle. 

.   (2)     Application   of   these   principles   in    its   dai'y 
struggle  with  capitalism  and  the  bourgeois  state. 

(3)  Recognition  of  the  necessity  of  the  overthrow 
of  capitalism  through  the  social  revolution  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  for 
the  transition  period. 

(4)  Recognition  and-  submission  to  the  interna- 
tional proletarian  discipline. 

(5)  Recognition  and  application  of  the  decisions  of 
the  Constituent  Congress  of  the  Red  International  of 
Labor  Unions. 

(6)  The  rupture  with  the  Amsterdam  yellow  Inter- 
national. 

(7)  United  action  with  all  the  revolutionary  organ- 
izations and  the  Communist  Party  of  the  country  in 
alj  defensive  and  offensive  activities  against  the 
bourgeoisie. 

IV.     International  Congresses. 

The  International  Congress  of  Revolutionary  Class 
Trade  and  Industrial  Unions  is  the  supreme  organ  of 
the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions.  Congresses 
take  place  as  often  as  possible — at  least  once  a  year. 
They  determine  the  general  principles,  program,  tactics 
and  statutes;  elect  the  directing  organ  and  decide  all 
the  questions  connected  with  the  orientation  of  the 
Red  International  of  Labor  Unions.  Extraordinary 
congresses  are  called  by  the  decisions  of  the  Executive 
Bureau  or  at  the  demand  of  organizations  representing 
no  less  than  one-third  of  the  members  of  the  Red 
Internationa^  of  Labor  Unions. 

All  trade  and  industrial  unions  which  accept  the  pro- 
gram and  are  following  the  directions  of  the  Red  Inter- 
national of  Labor  Unions  have  the  right  to  send  dele- 
gates to  the  congresses. 

The  representation  is  distributed  as  follows: 

Every  national  organization  of  trade  or  industrial 

74 


unions,  having  less  than  10,000  members,  receives  one 
consultative  voice  on  the  congress ;  national  organiza- 
tions having  from  10,000  to  25,000  members  send  one 
delegate  with  a  deciding  vote ;  from  25,000  to  100,000 
members,  two  delegates  with  deciding  votes;  from 
100,000  to  250,000,  four  delegates  with  deciding  votes; 
from  250,000  to  500,000,  six  delegates,  and  for  each 
additional  500,000  members  one  de'egate  with  a  de- 
ciding vote  is  added.  International  revolutionary  class 
organizations  by  trades  or  industries  have  the  right 
to  two  deciding  votes  each. 

Organized  minorities  in  countries  have  the  same  rep- 
resentation, but  all  the  organizations  of  a  given  coun- 
try affiliated  with  the  Red  International  of  Labor 
Unions  make  up  a  single  delegation,  inside  of  which 
the  votes  are  divided  proportionally  to  the  member- 
ship of  the  respective  organizations.  Organized  minor- 
ities and  factions  have  representation  on  the  congress 
only  in  the  case  when  the  general  labor  union  organ- 
ization of  that  country  is  not  affiliated  with  the  Red 
International  of  Labor  Unions. 
V.    Organs  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions 

The  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  has  two  or- 
gans— the  Central  Council  and  the  Executive  Bureau. 

Central  Council. — The  Central  Council  is  composed 
as  follows:  England,  United  States,  Germany,  Italy, 
Spain,  Czecho-Slovakia,  Poland  and  France  have  two 
representatives  each ;  Russia  has  four ;  all  other  coun- 
tries having  more  than  25,000  have  one  representative 
with  a  deciding  vote ;  countries  having  less  than  25,000 
have  one  representative  with  a  consulting  voice.  Inter- 
national organizations  by  trades  or  industries  have  one 
representative  with  a  consulting  voice. 

The  Central  Council  directs  all  the  work  of  the  Red 
International  of  Labor  Unions  from  congress  to  con- 
gress ;  makes  all  decisions  necessitated  by  the  circum- 
stances; represents  the  Red  International  of  Labor 
Unions  before  the  whole  world ;  acts  in  its  name ;  gath- 
ers in  its  hands  all  the  materials  and  documents  related 
to  the  International  Labor  Movement;  manages  all 
funds  including  the  International  Fund  of  Mi'Stant 
Solidarity ;  publishes  papers  and  magazines  in  different 
languages;  in  short,  is  the  organ  invested  with  the 

75 


power  to  direct  the  work  between  the  world  con- 
gresses. 

The  Central  Council  meets  at  least  twice  a  year, 
dealing  mostly  with  the  clearing  of  questions  of  prin- 
ciples and  leaving  all  current  work  to  the  Executive 
Bureau. 

The  Executive  Bureau. — The  Executive  Bureau  con- 
sists of  seven  members  ejected  by  the  Central  Council, 
including  two  members  of  the  country  where  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  is 
located. 

The  Executive  Bureau  directs  all  the  current  affairs 
of  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions.  It  regulates 
the  work  of  the  departments  and  sections;  publishes 
the  official  organs  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor 
Unions;  represents  the  Red  International  of  Labor 
Unions  and  the  Central  Council  wherever  and  when- 
ever it  is  necessary ;  and  prepares  all  the  questions  for 
the  sessions  of  the  Central  Council.  The  Executive 
Bureau  meets  at  least  once  a  week. 

VI.    Unity  of  Action  and  Unity  of  Organization 

Minorities  of  general  labor  unions  and  of  national 
centers  affiliated  with  the  Red  International  and  sepa- 
rate organizations  affiliated  with  it  must  coordinate" 
all  their  actions.  In  case  in  a  given  country  the  gen- 
eral federation  of  all  unions  affiliates  with  the  Red  In- 
ternational, no  other  separate  organizations  can  affiliate 
with  it.  The  revolutionary  organizations  endorsing 
the  stand  of  the  Red  International  must  join  the  gen- 
eral labor  union  organization  of  their  country. 

VII.     Funds 

The  funds  of  the  Red  International  are  composed  of 
regular  dues  paid  by  the  national  organizations  affili- 
ated with  it  and  of  special  contributions.  The  quota 
of  the  payments  is  established  as  follows:  At  least 
1  per  cent  of  the  total  income  of  the  organizations 
which  receive  into  their  central  treasury  50  per  cent  of 
more  of  the  membership  dues ;  at  least  2  per  cent  from 
those  organizations  receiving  into  their  central  treas- 
ury 25  per  cent  to  50  per  cent  of  the  membership  dues ; 
at  least  3  per  cent  from  those  organizations  receiving 
from  10  per  cent  to  25  per  cent  of  the  membership 
dues,  and  at  least  5  per  cent  from  those  organizations 
receiving  less  than  10  per  cent  of  the  membership  dues. 

76 


Until  the  creation  of  the  necessary  fund,  all  financial 
means  wiU  be  furnished  by  the  general  labor  organiza- 
tion of  the  country  where  the  headquarters  of  the  Red 
International  of  Labor  Unions  is  located. 
VIII.     The  International  Fund  of  Militant  Solidarity 

For  the  purpose  of  supporting  the  militant  revolu- 
tionary struggle  of  the  workers  in  different  countries 
the  Congress  decides  to  establish  an  International  Fund 
of  Militant  Solidarity. 

This  fund  is  composed  of  special  receipts  and  spe- 
cial collections  and  transfer  to  it  of  sums  from  the 
general  fund.  Fifty  per  cent  of  a  A  the  income  of  the 
Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  are  turned  over 
directly  to  the  International  Fund  of  Militant  Solidar- 
ity. This  fund  is  disbursed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Executive  Bureau,  which  gives  regular  accounts  about 
the  disbursements  to  the  Central  Council. 

IX.    Connections  with  International  Trade  and 
Industrial  Organizations 

The  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  admits  to 
membership  not  only  general  labor  union  organiza- 
tions by  countries,  but  also  international  organizations 
by  trades  and  industries. 

The  Executive  Bureau  shal?/  create  a  special  section 
of  trade  and  industrial  organizations  for  the  purpose 
of  serving  the  needs  of  separate  industrial  organiza- 
tions and  establishing  closest  possible  connections  with 
them.  International  trade  and  industrial  organizations 
establish  their  connection  with  the  Red  International 
of  Labor  Unions  through  their  special  representatives 
at  the  International  Congresses. 

X.     Relations  with  the  Communist  International 

To  establish  c^ose  and  unbreakable  connections  be- 
tween the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  and  the 
Third  Communist  International,  the  Central!  Council: 

(1)  Sends  three  representatives  to  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Communist  International  with  de- 
ciding votes  and  vice  versa. 

(2)  Organizes  joint  sessions  with  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Communist  International  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  most  important  issues  of  the  interna- 
tional labor  movement,  and  for  the  organization  of  com- 
mon action. 

(3)  Issues,  when  it  is  warranted  by  the  events, 
joint  appeals  with  the  Communist  International. 

77 


XI.    Relations  with  the  International  of  Revolutionary 
Cooperatives 

For  the  purpose  of  coordinated  action  and  mutual 
information  the  Central  Council  of  the  Red  Interna- 
tional of  Labor  Unions  sends  a  representative  with  a 
consulting  vote  to  the  executive  organ  of  the  Interna- 
tional of  Revolutionary  Cooperatives,  as  soon  as  it 
will  definitely  constitute  itself. 

XII.    Expulsion  from  Membership 

Organizations  affiliated  with  the  Red  International 
of  Labor  Unions  which  by  their  action  have  violated 
the  decisions  of  the  congresses  or  do  not  obey  the 
decisions  of  the  Central  Council  can  be  expelled  by  the 
decision  of  the  Central  Council,  on  condition  that  the 
motion  of  expulsion  must  be  carried  by  not  less  than 
a  two-thirds  vote. 

In  case  the  violation  is  done  by  the  central  organs 
of  a  given  organization  the  Central*  Council  of  the 
Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  must  ca7?  upon 
the  membership  of  that  organization  to  consider,  in  a 
special  conference  or  congress,  the  dispute  at  issue 
between  their  leading  organ  and  thdL  Red  Interna- 
tional of  Labor  Unions.  The  question  of  expulsion  is 
taken  up  by  the  Central  Council  only  after  the  con- 
ference or  convention  of  that  organization  had  reached 
a  decision  on  the  question  at  issue.  The  expelled  or- 
ganization has  the  right  to.  appeal  from  the  decision  of 
the  Central  Council  to  the  next  international  congress, 
which  may  endorse  or  annul  the  expulsion. 

XIII.    Internal  Structure 

The  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  designated 
to  direct  the  struggle  of  the  proletariat  and  to  inform 
its  members  of  the  situation  in  different  countries  must 
adapt  its  apparatus  to  the  work  it  must  perform.  For 
this  purpose  the  Central  Council  develops  its  apparatus 
by  creating  such  sections  and  departments  as  shall  be 
necessary. 

For  the  normal  conduct  of  affairs  and  close  contact 
of  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  with  the 
labor  union  organizations  of  different  countries,  the 
Red  International  must  establish  monthly  reports  of 
all  the  organizations  affiliated  with  it  and  periodical 
trips  to  the  most  important  countries  by  the  mem- 

78 


bers  of  the  Central  Council,  especia7jy  in  connection 
with  the  arising  of  big  economic  conflicts. 

XIV.     Magazine,  Bulletin  and  Information 

The  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions  is  publish- 
ing its  official  organ  in  four  languages  (French,  Ger- 
man, English  and  Russian)  and  a  bulletin  in  the  same 
languages.  Besides  those  two  organs  for  systematic 
information  and  ideological  leadership,  the  Central 
Council  of  the  Red  International  shal^  turn  their  atten- 
tion to  the  system  of  circular  letters  and  visiting  trips 
to  organizations. 

XV.     Auditing  Committee 

The  Central  Council  of  the  Red  International  of 
Labor  Unions  elects  an  Auditing  Committee  of  three, 
which  supervises  the  correct  expenditure  of  funds  and 
gives  periodical  reports  to  the  congresses. 

XVI.    Location  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor 
Unions 

The  permanent  location  of  the  Red  International  of 
Labor  Unions  is  decided  by  the  congress.  The  time 
and  place  of  the  congress  are  designated  by  the  Cen- 
tral Council. 


79 


Resolution  on  the  Women's  Question 

The  constituent  congress  of  the  Red  Labor  Inter- 
national, agreeing  with  Comrade  Sturm's  paper  on 
women  in  production  and  in  trade  unions,  declares: 

Wherever  capitalism  rules  or  gets  a  firm  foothold, 
ever  larger  masses  of  women  are  forced  to  work  for 
a  living.  Women  are  now  in  ever  greater  numbers 
engaged  in  all  branches  of  industry  and  professional 
work,  which  only  recently  have  been  closed  to  women. 
During  the  war  the  work  of  women  assumed  tremen- 
dous proportions,  and  in  spite  of  the  temporary  set- 
back after  the  war  under  the  influence  of  the  world's 
economic  crisis,  the  social  and  the  economic  tenden- 
cies making  for  the  increase  of  the  work  of  women, 
have  forged  ahead.  Although  in  many  branches  of 
industry  women  predominate  or,  at  least,  are  of  very 
extensive  and  decisive  importance,  although  in  some 
individual  labor  bodies  women  compose  the  majority 
of  the  membership,  they  take  only  a  smaijl  part  in 
the  work  of  trade  unions,  and  in  some  countries  the 
participation  of  women  in  the  trade  union  movement 
is  hardly  perceptible. 

The  energetic  and  wide  participation  of  women  work- 
ers in  the  revolutionary  struggle  of  the  trade  unions 
for  the  overthrow  of  capitalism  is,  however,  of  the 
highest  importance  and  of  absolute  necessity.  The 
joint  work  of  men  and  women  within  the  union  and  on 
behalf  of  the  union  is  the  most  successful  method, 
through  the  depth  and  crystallization  of  their  class- 
consciousness  of  drawing  the  women  workers  into 
active  participation  in  that  struggle. 

It  follows  from  the  above  stated  facts  that : 

1.  We  must  pay  the  greatest  attention  to  gathering 
and  training  the  women  under  the  banner  of  the  Red 
Trade  Union  International.  All  means  of  agitation  and 
organization  must  be  utilized  for  this  purpose. 

2.  We  must  insist  upon  the  necessity  of  having 
women  workers  and  employees,  etc.,  take  an  active 
part  in  all  kinds  and  forms  of  trade  union  life  and 
activity,  and  attracting  them  to  perform  all  trade 

80 


union  functions  (shop  committees,  agitation  and  wage- 
rate  committees,  executive  committees,  etc.). 

3.  The  Red  Trade  Union  members  must  energet- 
ically fight  the  efforts  of  the  capitalist  employers  aided 
by  the  governments  to  increase  their  profits  and 
strengthen  and  maintain  their  exploiting  industry  by 
utilizing  the  cheap  and  unorganized  women.  It  is, 
therefore,  their  duty,  every  time  when  wages  are  be- 
ing fixed  in  wage  scale  agreements,  and  the  relief  of 
the  unemployed,  to  come  out  for  placing  women  work- 
ers on  an  equal  footing  with  men  workers  in  the  same 
line  of  work.  They  must  further  exert  their  untiring 
efforts  for  improving  the  conditions  of  work  for  women 
engaged  in  industry.  They  must  put  up  a  decisive 
fight  against  the  weakening  of  the  legislation  for  the 
protection  of  women  workers  and  take  up  the  fight 
for  having  these  laws  thoroughly  perfected  and  made 
more  comprehensive,  special  attention  being  given  to 
the  protection  of  pregnant  women,  lying-in  women, 
and  of  maternity. 

4.  The  Red  Trade  Union  members  must  put  up 
an  insistent,  energetic  fight  against  all  the  efforts 
and  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  craft  unions  affiliated 
with  the  Amsterdam  Internationa),  at  forcing  women 
out  of  industrial  employment  in  favor  of  men.  They 
should  brand  and  fight  all  attempts  of  these  organ- 
izations working  in  concert  with  the  employers  to  win 
small  advantages  for  men  workers  at  the  cost  of 
neglecting  the  interests  of  women  workers. 

The  Constituent  Congress  of  the  Red  Labor  Inter- 
national declares  that  the  realization  of  the  above  de- 
mands will  mean  a  step  forward  in  solving  the  prob- 
lem of  drawing  the  widest  masses  of  women  into  the 
revolutionary  fight  for  the  overthrow  of  capita7$sm. 

XL    Resolution  on  the  Question  of  Unemployment 

1.  The  crisis  now  experienced  by  the  entire  capital- 
ist world  is  not  a  typical  industrial  crisis.  The  world 
war,  the  predatory  peace  terms,  the  cessation  of  regu- 
lar exchange  of  goods  on  the  world  market,  have 
brought  about  conditions  under  which  not  only  the 
conflicts  and  clashes  of  the  usual  kind  peculiar  to  the 
capitalist  system  were  clearly  brought  out  in  individ- 
ual countries,  but  new  conflicts  embracing  the  who1* 
wor'.d  have  come  to  the  surface.    The  accumulation  of 

81 


finished  goods  and  products  of  consumption  in  some 
countries  on  one  hand,  and  the  almost  total  lack  of 
these  products,  on  the  other;  the  large  amounts  of 
raw  material  rotting  in  some  countries  and  the  closed 
factories  and  workshops  owing  to  lack  of  these  raw 
materials  in  other  countries.  It  is  impossible  to  estab- 
lish the  regular  utilization  of  the  means  and  forces 
of  production  of  all  countries  under  capitalism.  The 
growing  of  unemployment  which  dooms  an  ever  in- 
creasing number  of  working  masses  to  starvation  and 
death — the  same  masses  who  have  just  returned  from 
the  battle  front — can  be  eliminate^*  only  after  the 
overthrow  of  the  bourgeois  power.  For  this  reason 
the  First  International  Congress  of  Red  Trade  and 
Industrial  Unions  sees  in  the  growth  of  unemployment 
the  symptoms  of  the  approaching  final  destruction  of 
the  capitalist  system. 

2.  This  Congress  points  out  to  the  workers  of  all 
countries  that  all  the  measures  and  energies  resorted 
to  by  the  capitalists  and  the  bourgeois  governments  in 
connection  with  unemployment  are  not  directed'  to 
lead  out  of  this  deadlock  but  intend  to  retain  the 
domination  of  the  bourgeoisie  and  safeguardnts  prof- 
its. For  this  purpose  they  are  now  resorting  to  inten- 
tional curtailment  of  production  which  has  already 
shrunk  to  a  great  extent,  thus  further  increasing  the 
number  unemployed.  In  this  way  they  cut  the  wage, 
weaken  the  militant  energy  of  the  labor  organizations, 
and  doom  the  working  masses  to  starvation  and 
hunger. 

3.  Unemployment  menaces  every  worker,  therefore 
the  struggle  against  the  conditions,  bringing  about  un- 
employment, is  a  question  of  life  and  death  not  only 
for  the  unemployed  but  also  for  those  who  are  still 
employed. 

4.  The  bourgeoisie  is  trying,  by  means  of  unem- 
ployment, to  split  the  ranks  of  the  working  class.  It 
tries  to  pit  the  unemployed  against  their  comrades 
who  are  still  employed,  and  those  who  are  still  work- 
ing against  the  unemployed.  The  most  important  task 
before  the  revolutionary  trade  unions  is,  therefore,  to 
prevent  these  evite  of  pauperization,  splits  and  the 
decay  of  the  militant  energy  of  the  proletariat  by 
rallying  in  one  solid  fighting  front,  with  a  single  fight- 
ing aim,  both  the  employed  and  the  unemployed,  unit- 

82 


ing  them  through  the  agency  of  special  committees. 
The  Congress,  however,  warns  against  the  formation 
of  special  unemployment  organizations  independent  of 
the  Red  Trade  Unions. 

5.  Together  with  the  bourgeoisie  the  reformist 
trade  union  officials  try  to  sidetrack  the  attention  of 
the  proletariat,  not  letting  it  understand  the  tre- 
mendous imminence  of  the  danger.  Both  of  them  try, 
by  means  of  various  insurance  funds  and  other  petty 
reforms,  to  arouse  in  the  workers  the  belief  that  the 
existence  of  the  proletariat  may  be  assured  even  with- 
in the  frame  of  the  capitalist  system.  In  opposition 
to  this  the  revolutionary  trade  unions  forcefully  em- 
phasize the  standpoint,  that  the  question  of  unemploy- 
ment, in  t)he  modern  capitVfist  society  is  not  only 
unsolvable  but  cannot  be  soothed  for  a  somewhat 
lengthy  period  of  time. 

Not  in  concert  witH  the  employers,  but  fighting 
them;  not  by  peaceful  capitalist  measures,  but  in  an 
open  class  warfare ;  not  with  the  help  of  the  bourgeois 
state,  but  through  its  complete  destruction  and  the 
establishment  of  the  proletarian  dictatorship) — can  the 
question  of  unemployment  be  solved. 

6.  The  Congress  of  the  Red  Labor  Unions  main- 
tains that  pending  the  present  crisis  of  unemployment 
we  cannot  limit  the  measures  of  relieving  the  unem- 
ployed and  starving  workers  to  those  possible  within 
the  conditions  of  the  capitalist  order.  The  workers 
are  hungry— we  demand  bread  for  them.  They  lack 
clothes  and  fuel.  We  insist  that  they  and  the  workers 
of  the  ruined-by-the-war  countries  should  be  supplied 
with  them  from  the  scattered-all-over-the-world  store- 
houses, bursting  with  goods  that  can  find  no  market. 
We  cannot  allow  the  reduction  of  wages,  although  the 
prices  of  articles  of  the  first  necessity  should  begin 
to  drop.  The  worker  who  has  not  yet  been  thrown 
out  from  the  shop  and  the  unemployed  worker  should 
not  consent  to  accept  a  mere  charity  which  he  is  now 
offered.  Their  earnings  must  not  be  lowered,  and  the 
relief  of  the  unemployed  must  be  equal  to  the  total 
pay.  . 

The  war  has  decreased  the  supplies  needed  by  man- 
kind, while  the  needs  of  the  people  have  grown.     We 

83 


demand  that  all  closed  shops  and  business  enterprises 
should  be  opened  and  the  workers  re-employed. 

7.  The  problem  before  the  revolutionary  factions  in 
the  trade  unions  affiliated  with  the  Amsterdam  unions 
insistently  demand  all  possible  energy  and  determina- 
tion in  favor  of  these  demands  for  the  unemployed. 
All  the  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  trade  union  officials 
to  put  the  unemployed  in  the  position  of  "citizens  of 
the  second  order"  should  be  given  a  decided  setback. 
It  is  highly  important  that  the  proletarians  still  em- 
ployed should  clearly  realize  that  their  interests  and 
those  of  the  unemployed  are  identical.  The  aim  of  the 
minority  factions  belonging  to  the  Amsterdam  unions 
consist  in  the  stubborn  and  energetic  defense  of  these 
demands.  Where,  under  the  pressure  of  the  masses, 
the  trade  union  officials  accept  the  demands  of  the  un- 
employed, it  is  the  duty  of  the  revolutionary  opposi- 
tion to  call  upon  the  masses  for  the  immediate  realiza- 
tion of  these  demands,  even  over  the  heads  of  the 
leaders. 

8.  The  bourgeoisie  wants  to  fortify  its  position  at 
the  expense  of  the  lives  of  millions  of  workers.  It 
will  oppose  the  frenziest  resistance  to  the  just  demands 
of  the  working  class.  This  resistance  can  be  over- 
come only  by  the  united  efforts  of  the  workers  of  all 
countries.  Mass  meetings  and  demonstrations  uniting 
not  only  the  workers  but  comprising  the  workers  of 
the  whole  world  should  be  organized  by  the  Red  Trade 
Unions. 

:  In  so  far  as  the  proletariat  becomes  victorious,  it 
wil}  be  confronted  with  new  problems,  and  primarily 
with  the  problem  of  control  over  production,  and  then 
of.  its  management.  The  workers  should  be  prepared 
for  this.  At  the  same  time,  they  must  also  be  ready 
for  a  series  of  clashes  with  the  bourgeois  power,  to 
armed  warfare  for  establishing  proletarian  dictator- 
ship and  to  the  organization  of  production  on  the  basis 
of  socialized  property. 

9.  The  First  International  Congress  of  Red  Labor 
Unions  calls  upon  the  working  men  and  women  of  the 
whole  world:  "Unite!  Get  ready  for  the  decisive 
struggle !"  The  Congress  says  to  the  unemployed : 
"You  were  the  first  victims  of  the  struggle — be  the 
advance  guard  in  the  attack.  But  don't  forget,  that 
you  can  win  onKy  by  attacking  in  serried  ranks  with 

84 


the  rest  of  the  workers,  defending  the  interests  of  the 
entire  working  class."  The  workers  at  the  bench  must 
not  hope  to  escape  the  lot  of  the  unemployed.  The 
fight  of  their  unemployed  brothers  must  be  the  fight 
of  all  workers,  and  the  Red  Trade  Unions  must  resort 
to  all  measures  directing  the  fight  of  the  unemployed 
under  the  banner  of  the  unions  and  that  fighting  de- 
tachments should  consist  both  of  the  unemployed  and 
of  their  comrades  who  are  still  employed. 

XII.    Resolution  on  the  Question  of  War  Victims 

The  question  of  war  victims  is  a  part  of  the  social 
problem  of  the  present  time  which  can  only  be  solved 
by  the  social  revolution  and  the  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat. 

If  the  war  victims  refuse  to  be  satisfied  with  charity 
from  the  hands  of  their  capitalist  masters  and  wish 
to  free  themselves  from  the  position  that  humiliates 
man's  dignity,  their  duty  must  be  to  take  part  in  the 
struggle  of  the  revolutionary  proletariat. 

f o  act  upon  the  minds  of  millions  of  victims  of  the 
war  in  this  direction  and  to  free  them  from  the  in- 
fluence of  the  reformist  organizations  of  the  disabled 
as  well  as  from  the  influence  of  the  branch  of  the  dis- 
abled of  the  International  Labor  Bureau  at  Geneva, 
must  be  considered  as  one  of  the  mostl  important 
objects  of  the  Red  International  of  Labor  Unions. 

The  Congress,  therefore,  resolves: 

1.  To  enter  into  communication  with  the  Interna- 
tional Council  of  Disabled  Soldiers  who  agree  to  the 
above  point  of  view,  and  whose  objective  is  the  educa- 
tion of  its  members  in  the  spirit  of  the  class  struggle 
against  capitalism,  and  against  wars  brought  about 
by  capitalism. 

2.  To  organize  departments  dealing  with  questions 
of  war  victims  in  the  General  Secretariat  of  the  Red 
International  of  Trade  Unions  as  well  as  at  ^the  Gen- 
eral Councils  of  Trade  Unions  in  separate  countries 
afluiated  with  the  Red  International. 

The  trade  unions  affiliated  with  the  Red  Interna- 
tional express  their  willingness  to  support  the  victims 
of  the  war  in  their  fight  for  better  conditions  within 
the  capitalist  state  and  to  call  upon  those  who  are 
not  entirely  unfit  for  work  in  factories  to  participate 
with  other  workers  in  complete  solidarity  in  the  com- 

85 


ing  struggle  for  the  Social  Revolution  and  the  dic- 
tatorship of  the  proletariat. 

XIII.    Resolution  on  the  Labor  Movement  in  the  Near 
and  Far  Eastern  Countries  and  the  Colonies 

During  the  last  years  a  tremendous  growth  of  the 
trade  union  movement  is  observed  in  the  Near  and 
Far  Eastern  countries  and  colonies.  The  growth  of 
the  labor  organizations  is  due  on  the  one  hand  to  the 
growth  of  capitalism  in  the  backward  countries  of  the 
world,  and  on  the  other,  to  the  calamities  that  fell 
upon  those  countries  in  connection  with  the  catastrophe 
which  humanity  now  endures. 

The  countries  of  the  Near  and  Far  East,  exploited 
by  the  world  capitalism,  as  all  colonies  in  general, 
live  through  an  epoch  when  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment is  at  its  full  bloom  and  develops  under  two  ban- 
ners :  under  the  banner  of  national  emancipation  from 
the  yoke  of  the  world  imperialism  and  under  that  of 
direct  struggle  of  the  workers  against  foreign  and 
home  exploiters. 

The  Red  Trade  Unions  of  all  countries  must  pay  par- 
ticular attention  to  the  growth  of  the  revolutionary 
labor  movement  in  the  Eastern  countries,  fully  realiz- 
ing that  only  the  growing  labor  movement  in  these 
countries  will  be  a  pledge  of  their  emancipation  from 
the  oppression  of  world  imperialism. 

The  Red  Trade  Unions  must  render  their  brotherly 
aid  to  the  workers  of  the  co\onies  exploited  by  the 
bourgeoisie  of  the  countries  to  which  they  are  sub- 
jected and  strive  to  establish  close  relations  with  them 
and  lend  a  moral  and  material  support  to  the  revolu- 
tionary labor  movement. 

It  must  be  kept  in  view  that  scores  of  millions  of 
workers  struggle  in  these  countries  which  are  awaken- 
ing to  a  new  Communist  life  and  the  revolutionary 
trade  unions  would  have  committed  a  great  error  if 
they  were  to  pass  without  notice  this  fact  in  the  his- 
tory of  humanity. 

The  might  of  the  European  and  American  bour- 
geoisie up  to  now  found  its  main  support  in  the  Near 
and  Far  Eastern  countries  and  the  colonies.  The  or- 
ganization of  the  exploited  masses  in  these  countries, 
the  creation  of  the  new  revolutionary  unions,  their  unifi- 
cation, the  development  of  their  class  consciousness 
to  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  social  revolution — all 

86 


this  will  be  not  only  an  immediate  help  to  the  ex- 
ploited workers  but  will  also  be  the  best  means  for 
a  struggle  against  the  imperialist  bourgeoisie  of  the 
corresponding  countries. 

This  is  why  the  Congress  entrusts  all  revolutionary 
unions  and  particularly  the  Council  of  the  Red  Inter- 
national of  Trade  Unions  to  follow  with  particu7ar 
attention  and  care  the  movement  now  spreading  in 
the  Near  and  Far  Eastern  countries,  to  support  the 
movement  and  do  everything  in  its  power  to  unite  in 
one  fraternal  family  the  organized  workers  in  the 
advanced  capitalist  countries  as  well  as  in  the  Near  and 
Far  Eastern  countries  and  colonies. 

The  Congress  calls  upon  the  workers  of  Turkey, 
India,  Korea,  China,  Egypt,  and  other  countries,  ex- 
ploited by  the  world  capital,  to  enter  into  the  brotherly 
family  of  the  Red  Trade  Unions  in  order  to  overthrow 
by  their  combined  efforts  the  wor?)d  domination  of 
the  bourgeoisie  and  on  its  ruins  create  an  industrial 
brotherhood  of  the  toiling  and  oppressed. 

XIV.    Appeal  Against  the  White  Terror 

Comrades,  the  Congress  notes  with  deepest  indigna- 
tion the  prevailing  oppression,  enslavement,  torture 
and  brutality  to  which  the  advance  guard  fighters  for 
the  emancipation  of  the  workers  are  being  subjected 
in  all  capitalist  countries. 

News  reaches  us  from  different  parts  of  the  world 
that  hundreds  and  thousands  of  our  comrades  are  be- 
ing thrown  into  prisons,  are  subjected  to  unheard  of 
brutalities  and  are  perishing  from  white  guard  bullets. 
Our  international  plunderers  are  not  contented  with  the 
corpses  they  piled  up  on  the  fields  of  all|  countries  dur- 
ing the  world  slaughter.  They  continue  up  to  now  to 
sentence  to  death  hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  best 
fighters  allowing  their  families  to  perish.  And  all 
this  is  committed  in  order  that  the  governing  classes 
could  increase  their  profits  in  order  that  they  should 
not  be  disturbed  by  the  workers  in  their  hideous  work. 
The  world  history  has  not  known  a  period  when  an 
oppressed  class  fighting  for  its  emancipation  had 
given  such  a  great  amount  of  victims.  Even  the  re- 
venge of  the  Versailles  clique  against  the  Paris  Com- 
munars  grows  paT!e  in  comparison  with  the  brutalities 
which  the  governing  classes  are  committing  day  in 

87 


and  day  out  upon  the  revolutionary  workers  and  their 
leaders.  In  Hungary  the  brutal  regime  of  Horthy  the 
Hangman  is  still  in  full  force.  He  has  made  up  his  mind 
to  efface  from  the  heart?  of  the  country  every  trace 
that  would  remind  it  of  the  Soviet  regime.  Each  day 
brings  along  with  it  the  disclosure  of  mutilated  bodies 
of  our  comrades  being  thrown  on  the  shores  of  the 
Danube. 

In  Italy  the  Facisti,  who  are  financed  by  the  indus- 
try kings  and  land  owners  and  backed  up  by  the  gov- 
ernment, attack  the  labor  organizations,  destroy  hun- 
dreds of  workers'  clubs,  cooperative  buildings,  mas- 
sacre or  kill  workers  irrespective  of  party  affixation, 
carry  out  wholesale  arrests  and  put  to  exile  the  work- 
ers' leaders  whom  they  did  not  succeed  to  shoot  from 
behind  the  corner.  Many  of  them  fell  victims  of 
these  massacres  and  the  first  among  them  was  Spartac 
Lavanini,  the  railwayman,  who  was  killed  in  Florence 
in  the  offices  of  the  local  Communist  Confederation  at 
his  secretarial  desk;  those  who  succeeded  in  escaping 
from  the  white  guards  were  seized  by  the  police  and 
thrown  into  prison.  Many  thousands  of  workers  have 
met  a  similar  fate,  their  only  crime  being  that  they 
belonged  to  the  exploited  class.  The  old  fighter,  the 
anarchist  Malatesta,  70  years  of  age,  is  at  present  in 
prison  in  spite  of  his  years.  In  Spain  the  hired  hang- 
men of  reaction  are  snooting  our  brother  workers  and 
remain  unpunished.  According  to  information  re- 
ceived not  long  ago  Comrades  Arlandis,  Evelis,  Boal, 
Antonia  Foil  in,  Jose  Domingo  and  Rodrigues  were  shot 
by  white  guards  in  the  street  immediately  after  they 
left  the  prison.  Thus  the  infamy  of  bourgeois  justice 
has  received  its  final  touch  from  the  criminal  hands  of 
the  white  hangmen. 

The  prisons  in  Germany  cannot  take  in  the  thou- 
sands of  comrades  who  are  sent  there  by  decisions  of 
the  high  courts.  Rosa  Luxemburg  and  Karl  Liebknecht 
were  treacherously  killed.  Eugene  Levine  was  shot 
down.  Silt  was  killed  during  an  alleged  fight.  Max  Helz 
was  sentenced  to  lifelong  confinement.  Thousands  of 
other  workers  have  perished  in  painful  death.  And 
this  happened  in  one  Of  the  freest  countries,  in  the 
government  of  which  social  democrats  and  trade  union 
leaders  participate.  .  And  all  this^-in  the  interests  of 

88 


capital — to  protect  the  bourgeoisie  against  the  legiti- 
mate demands  of  the  working  class ! 

In  France,  after  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  break 
up  the  Communist  organization  and  crush  the  youth- 
ful organizations  by  means  of  arresting  their  leaders 
and  prosecuting  them,  a  new  act  of  class  revenge  has 
been  prepared  against  the  proletariat  through  the 
agency  of  exceptional!  law  known  as  the  "Lois 
Scelerates." 

Those  who  remember  the  bloody  reprisals  of  Thiers 
the  Hangman  against  the  defeated  Commune  will 
clearly  understand  what  is  being  prepared  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  fhe  renegade  Briand  for  the  French  pro- 
letariat. 

The  white  guard  governments  of  the  small  states  do 
not  lag  behind  their  big  brothers.  We  are  informed 
from  Latvia  that,  beginning  with  the  Autumn  of  1919 
and  up  to  the  present  time,  seven  mass  arrests  of 
people  active  in  the  trade  union  movement  have  taken 
place  in  the  city  of  Riga  alone,  these  arrests  aggre- 
gating about  150  or  200  people.  Most  of  them  were 
exiled  to  Soviet  Russia  and  some  of  them  were  shot 
dead  at  the  border. 

On  the  eve  of  the  International  Trade  Union  Con- 
gress now  held  in  Moscow  the  social  democrats  started 
a  campaign  of  provocation  in  the  bourgeois  press  by 
giving  the  names  of  the  trade  unions  which  have  de- 
cided to  adhere  to  the  Red  Internationa1!,  as  well  as  the 
names  of  their  leaders. 

Who'esale  arrests  and  deportations  of  nearly  all  ar- 
rested and  the  shooting  on  June  9th  were  the  result 
of  the  above. 

On  the  Russian  border  Comrade  Kuperman,  member 
of  the  Presidium  of  the  Libau  Central  Trade  Union 
Bureau,  and  Matheson,  member  of  the  Riga  Central 
Bureau,  were  shot  dead  without  trial.  Comrade  Miglan, 
member  of  the  Executive  Board  of  the  Riga  Metal 
Workers'  Union,  has  also  been  sentenced  to  be  shot, 
but  he  managed  to  escape  from  the  shooting  ground  in 
his  undergarments  and  crossed  the  frontier  line. 

In  Finland  no  less  than  40,000  workers  fell  victims 
of  the  white  terror  after  the  civil  war,  about  80,000 
people  were  taken  to  the  concentration  camps,  under- 

89 


going  there  unheard  of  tortures  and  facing  certain 
death. 

The  trade  unions  were  smashed,  but  even  now  the 
white  guard  hangmen  go  on  with  their  atrocities,  as 
if  trying  to  outdo  the  feats  of  the  Hungarian  hang- 
man Horthy.  New  trade  unions  are  being  subjected  to 
persecution.  Many  of  their  members  and  responsible 
workers  were  thrown  into  prison  for  long  terms. 
Among  them  is  Comrade  Loukhenko,  chief  secretary 
of  the  Central  Federation  of  Trade  Unions  in  Finland. 

In  Czecho-Slovakia  after  the  general  strike  in  De- 
cember thousands  of  workers  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  white  guards,  hundreds  of  them  were  sentenced 
to  long  terms  of  hard  labor  and  here  also  democratic 
court  justice  is  doing  the  dirty  work  in  the  interests 
of  bourgeois  dictatorship. 

Men  and  women  workers  of  the  world!  Countless 
and  beyond  description  are  the  sacrifices  that  have 
already  been  made  by  the  revolutionary  proletariat. 
These  sacrifices  were  for  your  sake,  for  you  who  are 
menaced  by  the  same  fate.  The  hatred  of  the  exploiters 
of  the  working  class  awakening  to  a  new  life  is  bound- 
less. What  is  happening  today  to  our  comrades  lan- 
guishing in  the  prisons  may  happen  to  you  tomorrow. 
Their  death  may  tomorrow  lead  to  your  own  destruc- 
tion. If  the  international  gang  of  capitalists  succeeds 
in  crushing  and  annihilating  the  advanced  champions 
who  fight  for  your  interests  and  your  emancipation, 
you  will  be  handed  over  to  the  mercy  of  your  tor- 
mentors, and  will  have  to  go  through  unheard  of 
sufferings  without  any  defense. 

Workers  and  Comrades :  We  call  upon  you  to  hasten 
to  the  relief  of  your  persecuted  brothers  upon  whom 
hangs  the  threatening  sword.  Unite!  Your  present 
unions  are  insufficient.  At  the  head  of  your  organiza- 
tions are  people  who  support  your  class  enemies  and 
persecutors.  At  the  head  of  your  trade  unions  which 
have  joined  Amsterdam  are  still  those  who  have  be- 
trayed you  during  the  World  War.  Messrs.  Dumou'in, 
Thomas,  Henderson  &  Co.  are  sitting  at  Amsterdam 
and  pretend  to  represent  30,000  000  workers,  but  in 
reality  they  have  given  up  30,000,000  workers  to  the 
destruction  of  the  white,  black  and  green  gangs. 

How  many  workers'  lives  now  perished  would  be 
spared  but  for  the  silent  submissiveness  to  the  bloody 

90 


terror  on  the  part  of  the  traitors  of  the  working  class 
as  represented  by  the  yellow  leaders!  They  have  as 
yet  not  lifted  a  finger  to  resist  the  white  guards,  to 
organize  for  this  purpose  the  militant  forces  of  the 
working  class.  They  have  sold  themselves  to  your 
class  enemies.  Mr.  Thomas  is  plundering  the  seven 
million  francs  given  at  his  disposal  by  Vanderbilt  and 
the  League  of  Nations.  His  friends  are  using  all  pos- 
sible means  to  fight  the  revolutionists.  What  do  they 
care  about  your  sufferings,  your  misery,  what  do  they 
care  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  workers  will  re- 
main without  bread,  that  new  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  them  will  fall  victims  of  the  white  terror?  They 
are  now  partners  of  the  firm  which  is  called  Interna- 
tional Capital.  They  are  now  the  servants  of  the 
capitalist  vampire  that  will  bring  new  slaughters  and 
new  wars.  They  are  responsib'e  for  the  persecutions 
to  which  your  brother  workers  are  subjected  in  all 
countries. 

Workers  of  the  World :  Do  not  trust  these  leaders. 
Break  the  chains  by  which  Amsterdam  has  fettered 
you.  Close  your  ranks !  Join  the  ranks  of  the  fighters, 
your  brothers  and  sisters.  Forsake  the  bloody  ban- 
ners of  the  betrayers  of  the  workers'  interests.  Leave 
in  masses  Amsterdam  which  has  left  you  in  the  lurch 
at  a  critical  moment  and  has  always  defended  the 
interests  of  your  enemies,  the  capitalists.  Strengthen 
the  ranks  of  our  Red  Trade  Union  International.  It 
will  bring  you  relief  of  the  terror  and  horrors  to  which 
you  are  now  subjected.  At  the  same  time,  without 
losing  a  moment,  organize  and  show  a  united  resist- 
ance to  the  violators  and  murderers,  impudent  when 
left  unpunished  but  cowards  at  the  first  solid  setback. 

Down  with  the  hangmen  of  the  working  c\ass ! 

Down  with  Amsterdam ! 

Long  live  the  revolutionary  class  struggle! 

Long  live  the  Red  International  of  Trade  Unions ! 


91 


MANIFESTO 
XV.    To  the  Workers  of  the  United  Kingdom 

The  Congress  of  the  Red  International  of  Trade  and 
Industrial  Unions  sends  you  its  cordial  and  hearty 
greetings.  Especially  do  we  desire  to  congratulate 
the  one  jnillion  miners  of  Great  Britain  who  during 
stubborn  struggle  with  the  mine  owners  and  the  gov- 
ernment have  shown  such  magnificent  solidarity  over 
a  period  of  thirteen  weeks.  The  delegates  of  this  Con- 
gress, now  in  session  at  Moscow,  have  watched  the 
various  stages  of  the  struggle  with  the  keenest  in- 
terest and  admiration.  We  saw  how  near  to  final  vic- 
tory the  miners  were  when  the  full  support  of  the 
Triple  Alliance  was  definitely  promised  them,  and 
shared  your  regrets  when  their  support  was  withdrawn. 
We  rejoiced  when  the  perfect  solidarity  and  discipline 
of  the  miners  was  in  no  way  weakened  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  the  Triple  Alliance,  under  threats  of  your  gov- 
ernment, had  refused  the  promised  support.  We  fur- 
ther hope  and  believe  that  at  the  next  attempt,  which 
inevitably  must  be  made  under  the  capitalist  system, 
to  increase  the  economic  pressure,  together  with  the 
ruthless  exploitation  of  the  master  class,  we  shall  wit- 
ness a  true  spirit  of  brotherly  solidarity  on  the  indus- 
trial field.  We  a^o  believe  that  the  workers  will  aim 
directly  at  the  complete  overthrow  of  Capitalism  and 
at  taking  the  organization  of  industry  in  their  own 
hands. 

We  are  aware  of  the  struggle  of  the  Ship  Joiners 
and  Cabinet  Makers,  which  began  on  the  first  of  De- 
cember last,  and  is  still  carried  on  against  the  wage 
reductions  which  the  employers  are  trying  to  impose. 
We  see  that,  notwithstanding  the  prolonged  negotia- 
tions with  regard  to  labor  conditions  in  the  engineer- 
ing industry,  the  employers  still  insist  upon  further 
wage  reductions  and  that  the  million  and  a  half  of 
workers  in  the  engineering  and  ship  building  industry 
are  now  confronted  with  a  gigantic  struggle,  and  this 
at  a  time  when  the  unions'  financial  resources  are  aV 
ready  subjected  to  an  exceptional  strain.     The  dele- 

92 


gates  present  at  the  Moscow  International  Congress  of 
Trade  and  Industrial  Unions  hasten  to  send  their  greet- 
ings and  offer  their  hearty  encouragement  to  the  work- 
ers battling  for  emancipation  of  labor.  We  ourselves 
are  engaged  in  similar  struggles  in  our  respective  coun- 
tries ;  for  the  class  struggle  is  world  wide  and  cannot 
be  otherwise,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  all  of  us  to  conduct 
this  class  struggle  in  a  scientific  manner  and  in  every 
sectional  struggle  that  takes  place  to  aim  at  leading 
the  workers  more  and  more  definitely  towards  proper 
understanding  of  their  true  objective  and  to  develop 
for  future  struggles  working  class  solidarity. 

We  also  urge  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  workers 
refusing  to  identify  themselves  with  the  schemes  and 
institutions  of  the  governing  class  and  taking  no  part 
therein.  We  see  in  all  countries  that  governments  are 
resorting  increasingly  to  violence,  imprisoning  without 
trial  those  who  dare  to  stand  out  courageously  in  de- 
fense of  the  Workers'  Cause.  In  every  country  alike, 
even  when  they  claim  to  be  the  most  democratic,  in 
old  countries  as  well  as  in  those  newly  formed  as  a 
result  of  the  war  and  revolutions — everywhere  the 
same  methods:  imprisonment  of  leaders  and  shooting 
of  the  rank  and  file  are  constantly  resorted  to.  This 
limits  the  use  of  strike  action  and  makes  it  imperative 
for  the  workers  to  prepare  as  a  class  for  an  organized 
class  movement  for  the  full  realization  of  the  Social 
Revolution.  Here,  in  full  view  of  what  they  have 
achieved,  we,  with  them,  send  international  fraternal 
greetings  to  the  Workers  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
assuring  you  of  our  deep  concern  for  your  we^are. 
Casting  aside  national  and  racial  prejudices,  we  ex- 
tend the  hand  of  good  comradeship  to  all  and  to  the 
workers  in  the  engineering  and  shipbuilding  indus- 
tries in  particular,  and  while  appealing  for  organized 
opposition  to  the  plutocratic  employing  class,  we  send 
our  heartiest  wishes  for  complete  success. 

.Long  live  Industrial  Solidarity! 

Long  live  the  Social  Revolution ! 


93 


APPEAL 
XVI.     To  the  Spanish  Proletariat 

With  deep  emotion  and  great  interest  do  we  watch 
every  phase  of  your  struggle  against  the  exploiters 
and  their  protectors — the  military  and  governmental 
castes.  With  indescribable  horror  do  we  learn  of  the 
crimes  of  the  white  terror,  of  which  the  best  of  you 
fall  victims.  The  horrors  of  the  bourgeois  power 
reached  their  climax  in  these  bloody  acts.  By  such 
means  the  bourgeoisie  is  trying  to  decapitate  the  Revo- 
lution and  strengthen  the  foundations  of  the  Capitalist 
regime,  which  is  shaken  under  the  incessant  attack  of 
the  organized  proletariat.  One  is  filled  with  admira- 
tion in  watching  your  heroic  struggle  against  the  ruth- 
less repressions  which  will  become  one  of  the  most 
ignominious  pages  in  the  history  of  the  bourgeoisie, 
and  one  of  the  most  glorious  pages  in  the  history  of 
the  protetariat.  Comrades,  the  rulers  of  today  are 
showing  you  great  honor,  indeed.  Because  by  putting 
you  in  prison,  by  exiling  and  murdering  you,  they 
clearly  show  their  fear  of  the  great  danger  that  your 
class  consciousness  and  your  will  to  struggle  threatens 
them  with. 

If  they  deal  you  hard  blows,  that  is  simply  because 
your  blows  strike  them  hard.  And  if  the  weight  of 
reaction  daily  increases,  it  is  a  testimonial  to  the  tre- 
mendous growth  of  your  revolutionary  advance.  Be 
firm,  Comrades !  In  spite  of  the  ignominious  outrages 
perpetrated  against  you,  do  not  give  up  a  single  inch  of 
ground  in  your  efforts  to  overthrow  the  bourgeois 
power  and  the  entire  bourgeois  class.  Remember  those 
who  have  fallen  in  the  struggle.  They  are  dear  to  us, 
but  let  us  not  weep — let  us  avenge  them.  In  opening 
its  session,  the  Congress  of  Revolutionary  Labor  Unions 
sends  you  its  fraternal  greetings  and  expressions  of 
complete  and  close  unity  with  you,  in  these  days  of 
hard  trial,  so  courageously  endured  by  you.  We  send 
you  our  advice  to  prepare  methodically,  to  organize 
systematically,  to  fortify  your  militant  detachments, 
so  that  you  may,  with  a  decisive  blow  achieve  the  vic- 

94 


tory  over  those  whose  remorseless  and  cruel  yoke 
oppresses  you.  Take  possession  of  all  the  means  of 
production — land,  factories;  take  into  your  own  hands 
the  entire  mechanism  of  social  construction,  victoriousry 
protecting  the  achievements  of  the  revolution! 

Long  live  the  Spanish  Proletariat ! 

Long  live  the  World  Revolution ! 


95 


XVII.     Greetings  to  the  Russian  People 

The  Constituent  Congress  of  the  Red  International 
of  Trade  and  Industrial  Unions  at  which  several  hun- 
dred delegates  representing  revolutionary  workers 
from  forty-two  countries  have  participated,  nearing 
the  end  of  its  labors,  expresses  its  great  admiration  for 
the  Russian  people  which  for  four  years  have  been 
fighting  with  unexampled  bravery,  persistence  and  self- 
sacrifice  for  the  triumph  of  the  world  revolution. 

The  Congress  protests  against  the  continuation  of 
the  criminal  blockade,  which  contributes  to  the  fur- 
ther deterioration  of  the  economic  condition  sufficiently 
critical  owing  to  natural  calamities  affecting  a .  con- 
siderable part  of  Soviet  Russia,  thus  causing  starva- 
tion and  threatening  with  death  millions  of  human 
beings. 

The  members  of  the  Congress  bind  themselves  to 
fight  against  the  imperialism  and  banditism  of  the  gov- 
ernments of  their  respective  countries.  They  solemnly 
declare  to  be  their  bounden  duty  to  advance  the  class 
education  of  the  wide  proletarian  masses  for  the  pur- 
pose of  uniting  them  in  the  Red  Internationa^  of  Trade 
Unions,  and  direct  their  actions  against  the  dictator- 
ship of  the  capitalists  and  for  the  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat  all  over  the  world. 

Sending  its  warm  greetings  to  the  Russian  people, 
to  their  wonderful  Red  Army,  to  their  revolutionary 
peasants  and  workers  and  to  those  leaders  who  have 
taken  upon  themselves  the  hard  task  of  defending  and 
organizing  the  revolution,  the  Constituent  Congress 
of  Red  International  Trade  Unions,  speaking  on  be- 
half of  the  International  proletariat,  is  conscious  of 
its  revolutionary  aims  and  declares  that  these  aims 
wiTil  be  attained  by  its  own  efforts  in  cooperation  with 
the  III  International. 

Long  live  the  unity  of  the  revolutionary  forces  in 
the  Red  International  of  Trade  Unions! 

Long  live  the  Proletarian  Revolution  of  the  World ! 


96 


What  Every  Worker 
Should  Read 


The  International  Council  of  Trade  and  Indus- 
trial Unions,  by  A.  Losovsky 10  cents 

The  Role  of  the  Labor  Unions  in  the  Russian 

Revolution  5  cents 

Proceedings  of  Red  Labor  International 15  cents 


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